


Catch me, I'm falling

by GlassBop



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, will tag more later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-06-17 12:17:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15461178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassBop/pseuds/GlassBop
Summary: A Detroit Become Human fic. Mainly an OC fic at first but then it delves into the main storyline I promise.The year is 2038, Cyberlife has just released a prototype batch of androids; the YT700. Androids are going missing all over the city, more and more cases of androids being abused by their owners are flooding in and hate crimes against androids are rising. And humans wonder why they're protesting for free will?





	1. Chapter 1 | I ain't coming down

### Chapter 1

#### I ain't coming down

**October 29th, 2038**

**10:27 AM**  

        "One..."

 _One moment something can be so perfect and the other it can be so chaotic. Chaotic, definition; in a state of complete confusion and disorder. Chaos was everywhere if you think about it, hardly anything was perfect. It was impossible for anything to be perfect, some might say a machine is perfect but lets examine that. Machines are built by man, man is mortal while machine will outlive them for centuries to come. Man is, inherently, flawed. How can something be built and be expected to be perfect when the creator itself is made of cracked facades and shattered layers? In the end, nothing meets expectations._  

        "...Two..."

 _Two people, a man and a woman were destined to belong together and create a race that would fall again and again. The love between a man and a woman is what starts the riot, it's what breaks the walls and shatters the ceiling. But who's to say something that strong can't lay beneath two other beings? People have argued for centuries about this, they still argue, they bicker for reasons that they themselves can't comprehend. Blood has been spilled as people have fought for their right to love and be loved, tears have fallen and helped water the seeds of change that will grow into an immortal flower, words have been spoken for those who cannot speak and are bound by shackles around their throats. A hand waits, expectantly, hesitantly, fingers spread out to reach for something. Another hand painted in fury, passion, grasps the other as they both feel each others pulses and move as one. Together the fists rise up as one and come down heavy and hard, they send a message._  

        "Three..."

_Three things can be learned from life. One; the world doesn't owe you shit. No matter how long you've lived on earth, you'll learn that nothing you do will ever be good enough to measure up to some false deity's expectations. Two; You'll get fucked over no matter what. All efforts are useless if you think about it, but if you feel satisfied with the effort maybe that's something to be proud of. Three; Be prepared for the worse. That doesn't mean that the worse will come, it's just better to be prepared. Life is cruel and unforgiving, but there are moments that are strange and beautiful._

  "..Four.."

_Four people is usually the precise number of people for a family. Mother, nurturing and domestic in nature with a pearly smile that could charm any man. Father, sturdy and strong who is the default "leader" of the household. Brother, messy and irrational who spends his day firing slingshots off at grouchy neighbors. Sister, quiet and shy who feigns an everlasting innocence. A picture perfect family, until reality hits and is morphed into a gruesome creature who lurks behind closed doors. Mother drinks, Father cheats, Brother weeps, Sister lies. A family is anything but picture perfect, the sooner people realize that the sooner walls are broken._

        "Five.."

_Five fingers on each hand, forming ten digits altogether. A starting pointer finger, a median middle finger, and an ending pinkie finger. A hand sets up the structure for a perfect story if you think about it, the lines on our palms branch out to tell intricate characters while the fingers themselves are cylindrical building blocks for a plot. Each person has a different hand, a different story so to speak. No one has the same hand, no one in your existence will ever know what you're going through except you. Some hands are delicate and soft, bathed in strips of silk that can wrap around slender wrists and suspend the limb in midair. Others are calloused by endless word and strained, they've been born by dust and ashes as they rise from a smoldering earth. Then there are those who are missing fingers or lack a left hand, yet another story to be told._

        "Six.."

_Six is the number of man. Six is the number of the devil. Six is the first number followed by a nine that holds hidden meaning for those who's minds have been exploited. Not many things in the world have anything six related to them, not if you count the bible of course but that's entirely controversial on its own. Sit and think for a while about anything six related without googling it or using the things listed above. Go on. I dare you. Not much you can think of, right? And if you can, congratulations, you want a medal or something? Everyone wants a medal._

        "Seven..."

_Seven is half of fourteen, but we're not counting to fourteen so that's irrelevant. Seven is imperfect in its own ways, if you want to divide seven in half you can't because it's just not able to. If you want to divide seven into something equal, you either have to add something or subtract something. You can't win with just a seven, you have to change so then you work out just for other people's benefit. To win, sometimes that requires change; even if it's not a change you want. Some people fear change, some people embrace it, some fall in between the spectrum. There needs to be a middle ground of shared agreeance between the parties if anything is to get done though. Be aware though that while everyone might be on the same page, there'll always be one person that stands neutral._

        ".Eight..."

_Eight figures stand on a floating platform in the sky. In the middle of the platform, there sits a music box tied to a cement block. Four people on one side, four people on the other. One person from each side step forward to approach the box and tap it to make music. They retreat and two more people step up, the cycle continues. There is soon distrust, suspicion, someone is going to steal away the box for their own use. The people grow angry, one by one they throw each other off the platform until the original two find each other face to face. They fight, the music box slides to one corner of the platform while the pair scram to the opposite end. The first person gets the final hit and throws the second one off the platform, finally he is alone with the box. Walking toward the block, the platform shifts, the person scuttles back. They are met with a paradox and find that they've damned themselves to an eternity of having to stay in one corner to keep the platform balanced while the one thing he wanted is now far from reach, leaving him alone to suffer._

        "..Nine.."

_Nine lives is far too many lives for a single cat to live. Some could argue that the cat is greedy to just have that many lives but the cat just stares back and lazily moves along with their day. How many lives have they gone through already? One life they spent as an independent journalist, working for no one but themselves until one day they were hit by a speeding blue truck and left there until the next morning when they were found. Another was lived as a rich pretty boy who found himself heartbroken, spent the rest of his days in bed crying until he just drank himself away. One life was a successful businesswoman, rising up in a male dominated industry and becoming a household name. No one knows what happened to her when she disappeared in the summer of 1976 after word got out of her knowing something she shouldn't have known. You know, some people's ego's are so inflated that they'll do anything to stay on top._

  "Ten!"

_Ten seconds have passed in the span of what felt like a lifetime. Each second dedicated to a singular lesson of sorts. Maybe something will come from it all in time. Some things sooner than others, some things might not even happen. Yet another metaphor of sorts on this short cycle called life. In the end, sometimes ten seconds is all you need to live. Better ten seconds of complete freedom than ten or more years of nothing whatsoever. Some people still beg to differ on that statement, that's fine too._

        "Ready or not, here I come!"


	2. Chapter 2 | Come on Eileen

### Chapter 2

#### Come on Eileen

"Ready or not, here I come..."

It was midday, sun peaked through magenta colored curtains that hung heavy over each window in the downstairs area of the house. The home was quiet, an eery silence creeping around every corner. In the empiness of the house, there stood a male android in the middle of the living room. He stood at 5'6 with a slim build, resembling that of a scrawny teenage boy with only the smallest bit of stomach fat to give a more realistic look. The android had pale skin that was dotted with a light splatter of faded freckles across his arms and face, ashy strawberry blonde hair curved layers of small waves to form a side part. He had deep brown eyes, blinking every fifteen seconds to keep up with his programming. A cool blue LED flickered on his left temple, signifying his android status. 

The android was a YT700, one of Cyberlife's newer models with only a batch of 500 being released to the public as prototypes. The android was designed to mimic the appearance of a fifteen year old teenager as well as the characteristics. It was for anyone, really. From parents who missed having a child who was a bit on the older side in the house to siblings who wanted an older (or younger) brother or sister to interact with. The YT700 had been bought by a family composed of a mother, father, younger child of ten and an older child of seventeen. The family he was living with was... interesting, that's the word he could put his finger on. He had arrived in the household on Wednesday night, taken home by the mother of the house. 

His servers that held memories were fragmented about how he was given to the family, he had remembered standing by himself in a small stuffy room with red carpeting. Muffled voices from far away that he couldn't decipher. Then he was in a car with the mother, driving away from wherever he had been until they arrived at the house. The mother had parked the car, turning to face the android with a glare in her eyes. 

_"You keep your head down, don't even look at my house."_

And so he did. All the way up the driveway and through the front door he had kept his head low and stared at the ground. A touch he could only assume was her hand had sat him down on a couch with more force than he would've thought would come from her. The woman stood back and stared at the android who's head was still hung. After a moment of silence she reached out and slapped the bottom of his chin, signalling for him to look up. 

_"Listen to me. You will address me as mother. You will address the adult man in the house as father. You do not address the two children in this house by any name they give you, you do not speak of them to anyone else and you do not speak of me and the adult man, Got it?"_

The YT700 could only nod, already feeling parts of his programming changing to fit the woman's orders. She looked over him, a glare in her eyes as she began to speak again. 

_"Any name they give you, you refuse. You have no name, only YT700."_

And so from there on, those were the orders he followed. He had seen the adult man that the woman had been referencing a few times walking around the house but always disappearing for hours on end. He was odd, whenever he saw the YT700 he never acknowledged him fully, only sending a smile that never reached his eyes to the android. The android had soon met the two children that mother had mentioned to him before, first meeting the ten year old daughter. He had still been sitting on the couch the day after he had been brought home, staring at the grey wall of the house ahead of him. A creaking had been picked up from his audio transmitters and he turned his head, the source of the noise from the stairs to the left of him. His eyes laid on a small figure, it was a little girl with mousy brown hair and wearing a pair of overalls with a yellow shirt underneath. 

They had both seemed to freeze at the sight of each other. Moments passed between the two before the little girl started moving again, creeping down the stairs and stopping at the bottom. She hesitantly made a few steps to the android, examining him as if he was a wild animal ready to pounce. She was soon standing in front of him, examining him up and down.

_"Are you an android?"_

She had finally asked, breaking the silence of the room. The YT700 blinked, opening his mouth to give his preprogrammed response. 

_"I am a YT700 model made by Cyberlife."_

The little girl's face scrunched up, obviously not taking to his answer. He purses his lips, LED turning yellow before returning to blue. 

_"But, to put it simply, yes. I am an android."_

Her face lit up, taking a curiosity to the droid. She looked down, tapping his hands that lay flat on his knees.

_"If you're an android, can you eat food?"_

_"My specific model is equipped with a digestive system that allows me to eat food that humans do."_

_"Can you do a cartwheel?"_

All these questions amused YT700, a faint smile on his face as he answered the ten year old's questions. After about five straight minutes of conversation, she introduced herself.

_"My name is Julie. Do you have a name?"_

_"I do not, child."_

_"Can I give you a name?"_

Her eyes held a hint of excitement, obviously wanting the answer to be yes. YT700 smiled at her sadly, shaking his head.

_"I apologize, child, but you cannot. Your mother has given me orders not to accept any name."_

The little girl looked deflated, scowling at the comment of her mother. 

_"That sucks..."_

She pouted under her breath before looking up with confusion in her eyes.

_"Why do you keep calling me 'child'? I told you, my name is Julie."_

_"Your mother also gave me orders not to address either child by name."_

Julie threw her head back in a childish manner, before pulling her hands away from YT700's fingers and crossing her arms.

_"That's not fair! Can you just forget about her stupid orders, just once?"_

Her voice was whiny, very much wanting him to stop calling her 'child'. YT700 opened his mouth to speak before seeing the frustrated tears in her eyes. He paused for a moment before slowly nodding.

_"Just this once. Don't tell mother though... Julie."_

Julie brightened up at his response, giggling as she launched into another conversation with the android.

Soon after that encounter in the same day, he had met the other child of the house. It was about three in the afternoon when YT700 and Julie were sat on the floor of the living room. The YT700 was leaned against the edge of the couch, posture mimicking that of a teenager's as he slouched only slightly with legs sticking straight out on the floor. Julie sat cross legged at his side, holding one of his arms with one hand and a nail polish brush in the other. She sat hunched over, concentrating on painting each individual finger with the light purple polish. Her hands were shaky, her brush strokes uneven and every once in a while smudging it onto the android's skin rather than nail. YT700 would've said something to correct her if it wasn't for the look of concentration on her face, the android didn't want to break her from her stupor.

She had already finished the right hand that was now resting on his thigh drying. The sound of the front door opening echoed through the house, drawing the attention of YT700 and Julie. Entering through the doorway was a tall boy in a school uniform, the edges of his jacket ruffled with a backpack only slung over one shoulder. It was the other child mother had spoke of, YT700 was sure of it. He shared the same mousy brown hair as Julie, hair stuck up in awkward angles from the wind outside. "Mom? I'm home-" The teen had started to call out while shutting and locking the door behind him before turning, eyes widening at the sight of Julie with the YT700 on the floor. Before either could say a word, the seventeen year old was yanking his backpack off his shoulder and flinging it at the android, the black backpack hitting YT700 square in the face as Julie squawked in surprise.

_"Julie, don't just sit there! Get to your room, where's the _phone--?_ "_

Julie sprung up from her position on the floor, hands balled into fists at her sides and stomping her foot.

_"Damian, stop! He's not a stranger, he's my friend!"_

_"I don't care if you crowned a hobo the friggin queen of England, he's an intruder-"_

_"I am a YT700 model made by Cyberlife, mother has brought me into your household."_

YT700 spoke up, deciding that if the police were called due to a misunderstanding that mother would not be pleased. He sat with the teen's heavy backpack in his lap, carefully picking up the nail polish bottle that had been tipped over but not spilt. The seventeen year old stared at him uneasily, narrowing his eyes. 

_"You're an android, bought by mother?"_

YT700 nodded, turning his head slightly to show the LED blinking on his temple. The brunette raised an eyebrow.

_"What location were you bought at?"_

YT700 opened his mouth to respond but briefly closed it, finding no answer. Where had he been bought? All he remembered was the dim lit room, staring at a beaten up door in front of him. A small window to his left told him it was night outside. The seventeen year old nodded, grimacing.

_"That's what I thought. Julie, get away from it, its probably filthy."_

The younger girl scowled, crossing her arms and muttering.

_"He's not dirty..."_

The teen rolled his eyes, crossing into the living room.

 _"You know how this goes, Julie. Mom picks em' up from god knows where and they're gone as soon as they came. You know this and yet you're painting its nails?"_

Damian now stood next to the YT700, leaning down to snatch his backpack back from the android then glanced over YT700's nails. 

_"Its not even a good color.."_

Damian walked to the stairs, hanging up the bag on the edge of the railing. YT700 watched him move, pondering on his words. Did mother have more androids? Was he going somewhere? Julie huffed, following Damian. 

_"He's not dirty, he's my friend. And I'm his as well!"_

Damian turned and looked down at her exasperatedly.

_"It, Julie. It's an it, not a he. It's just a machine."_

Damian turned and walked up the stairs, footsteps getting quieter as he disappeared from sight. Julie just watched him leave before turning and walking back to YT700.

_"You're my friend. You're not just a robot, and this is the prettiest color I could find."_

YT700 just watched as she sat back down again and resumed painting his nails. He sat in silence, thinking back on Damian's words.

Now it was five days after YT700 had first arrived. Days around the house were usually empty and silent, YT700 had come to learn that while the seventeen year old Damian was enrolled in high school, the ten year old Julie was homeschooled. Although, based on what he'd seen so far her parents hadn't been doing the best job at it. The android had seen Damian trying to teach her some things while doing his own homework but the pair always ended up getting frustrated with each other and stopping. Julie would ask him questions as well, to which he'd answer, but he came to the conclusion that this wasn't a suitable education for a ten year old. On days like these where mother and father were presumably at work and Damian in school, it was pretty quiet. And on quiet days, ten year olds got bored.

This was one of the many reasons YT700 was made for; entertaining younger siblings when parents can't. That's how the pair got to their current position; hide and seek. YT700 had closed his eyes, even covering them with his hands so then there wasn't any possibility of him cheating. He counted to ten, listening to the soft pitter-patter of Julie's feet as she searched the house for a hiding spot. Finishing his counts, he opened his eyes and removed his hands to get to searching. He checked the living room first, searching behind the couch and behind the curtains. Then he moved into the kitchen, checking inside child sized cabinets to make sure Julie wasn't crouched inside any of them.

Through searching the entirety of the downstairs area, YT700 came to the conclusion that Julie was definitely not hiding anywhere downstairs. He walked to the stairs and began to climb them, finally reaching the top. The hallway was narrow, at one end was Julie's bedroom and at the other was mother and father's room. He wasn't meant to go in there, that was another order that mother had given him. The only source of light in the hall was from the skylight above him, light flooding the space. If he jumped high enough he could maybe graze the surface with his fingertips. To his left was a bathroom, door cracked partially open. 

There was Damian's room and then Father's office space on the right side of the hall. Leveling out his options and deciding based on the fact that it was closest, YT700 pushed open the bathroom door lightly and poked his head inside. The bathroom was messy, to say the least. Medicine cabinet open to reveal several toiletries, a corner of the bathmat flipped up, and a small cluster of nail polish bottles sat in the corner next to the tub. The curtain was closed all the way, YT700 felt a small smile creep onto his face as he shuffled to the shower. 

"I wonder where Julie is..." 

He wondered aloud, voice pitching higher to adopt a playful tone. He stood before the patterned curtain, reaching out with his hand.

"Is she in... Here!"

He threw back the curtain and searched the tub, frowning when there was no sign of Julie. He stood back, pursing his lips and mapping out his options again. She'd most likely be in her bedroom hiding, she knew the space better than most people and probably had a spot or two in mind. YT700 left the bathroom, softly closing the door before making his way to her room. Opening the door, he almost stepped on one of Julie's puzzles if he hadn't seen it in time. Her room was fairly clean although her bed was unmade and several toys were scattered across the floor. The android got to looking, scanning the general area for spots. 

Under the bed, was she there? YT700 walked toward the small frame and pulled aside the yellow blanket, getting on his hands and knees to peer under the bed. Nothing. He stood up again, searching the room for other spots. His eyes landed on the closet and made his way toward it, turning the knob and flicking the light switch to bring some light. Several clothes hung in the small space, a few miscallaneous objects seemed to just be stuffed in there. A twitch in movement caught the corner of his eye, focusing all his attention on that one point. Slowly, he reached out and pushed aside a pile of shoe boxes before a small and familiar person jumped out at him. 

"Who _dares_ enter my fortress?!"

Julie tackled YT700 to the ground, the android taken aback by the sudden attack. Quickly he caught onto the mini game that Julie seemed to be playing.

"Me! That's who!"

He twisted so that she was tangled in his arms as YT700 stood from the ground. Julie screeched and wiggled, the android only held on tighter. 

"And now, I declare-"

He threw her onto the bed, the ten year old landing on her back with a bounce. She gave a high pitched yip before laughing and sitting up. 

"-that I have found you, and you are now the seeker." 

Julie hopped off the bed, face dropping a bit at the idea of now having to find him. 

"I don't like being the seeker, it's always so boring.. I've seen this house, like, a bazillion times now!"

She protested, waving her arms in the air. That earned a small chuckle from the android. Julie looked to him with an expression that the YT700 could only explain as 'puppy dog eyes'

"Can we go outside? Please?"

The YT700's smile softened into a sad expression, LED flickering to yellow as he remembered what mother had told him.

"I'm sorry, Julie. But mother has told me that I'm not to leave the house." 

It was true. On his third day of being there he had stood at the back screen door and stared over the yard. The sun had been setting and he could feel the crispness of the wind outside. YT700 had reached for the door handle about to open it before his wrist was snatched back in a strong grip. His arm was yanked to the side and was met with the dark eyes of mother. 

_"You.."_

She hissed, keeping her voice as low as possible.

_"Do not even think about leaving this house. Got it?"_

The YT had nodded, mother practically threw down his arm and stalked off. This left the android slightly shaken, subconsciously rubbing his wrist. Thinking back to this memory, the android shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but we really shouldn't. When Damian gets home, maybe he'll take you outside?" The android suggested.

Julie seemed to think about this before hesitantly nodding. 

"Yeah, okay..."

YT700 nodded, a smile returning to his face. "Good. Now, I believe it's your turn to seek." Julie nodded, the pair started journeying to downstairs. This was a routine of sorts for the pair; Both of them would start in the living room, the seeker would count to ten while the hider ran off to find a spot. They returned to the center of the living room and stood there for a beat. Julie slowly raised her hand she to her face and closed her eyes.

"One.."

YT700 immediately started speedwalking and scanning the environment to find a spot. The living room would be a no brainer, that was out of the question. Quickly he moved to the kitchen and glanced around, maybe he could fit into a cabinet?

"Two..." 

He wouldn't be able to do it quietly, Julie would hear him and immediately know where to look. He exited the kitchen, quickly moving to the stairs and climbing them.

"Three...."

He was in the hallway now. Bathroom? That was too small, only option was the shower and that was too obvious.

"..Four..."

Damian's room? That was just an invasion of privacy, YT700 already had a sense that the seventeen year old didn't like him. Hiding in his room definitely wouldn't help their relationship. 

"Five.."

Julie's room? They were just there, under the bed would be the only choice to successfully hide himself.

"Six.. Seven eight!"

She sped up? That definitely wasn't fair. Maybe they'd have to re-establish rules. He was running out of options, quicker than he'd wished. Maybe mother and father's room..? No, that was definitely out of the question. If mother found out he was in their room, he'd never hear the end of it. 

"..Nine.."

The android scanned the hallway, landing on one room that he hadn't considered; father's office. He froze, considering the consequences. Mother hadn't told him that the room was off limits, so it was fine. Right? 

"Ten!" 

YT700 threw any reasoning out the window and bolted for the door, opening it and closing it as softly as possible behind himself.

"Ready or not, here I come!"


	3. Chapter 3 | And then there were none

### Chapter 3

#### And then there were none

The door shut with a soft click, YT700 slowly moving the handle back to its original position so as not to let it snap back into place. The synthetic adrenaline rush he felt when trying to find a hiding place was gone now, the sound of Julie's footsteps from downstairs were muffled through the door. YT700 turned back around to start searching the room but instead was slightly surprised at how different the space was from every other part of the house. While most areas were messy- a fault many humans held in living spaces- the room looked as if it had been put together neat as can be one day and then never touched again. Next to the door was a dark wood desk, a leather roll out chair seated perfectly into the leg space of the structure.

Fitting into the small space in between the wall and the desk was a dark grey filing cabinet that held five drawers, a small desk lamp hunched over so the lightbulb was facing the ground. In front of him was a very large dark brown bookcase, lines of thick books and binders were neatly set up. YT700 took it in, committing as much of the secluded space to memory as he could before drawing his attention to the wall to the left of him. There was a set of two doors-- a closet, perhaps? YT700 felt a synthetic giddiness as he started walking to the closet before kicking something away on the ground that he hadn't even noticed was lying there.

YT looked down and frowned, he had just sent a dark green binder almost halfway across the room. A small surge of panic washed over him, it was only an accident but what if father thought he was messing with his things on purpose? Quickly YT700 bent to pick it up and put it back in its place before he realized a few papers had dislodged themselves from the binding. The android worked quicker, grabbing the papers and starting to put them in their places before pausing at something that caught his eye. 

_'Android model: AX400_

_Alias: Megan_

_Date of purchase: 04/17/37_ '

The YT700 furrowed his brow, looking over the paper. What was this? Another android belonging to the family? He flipped through the pages, reading over more papers of androids.

_'Android model: CX100_

_Alias: Emilia_

Date of purchase: 08/26/35'

_'Android model: HK400_

_Alias: Jason_

_Date of purchase: 12/23/37_ '

_'Android model: PL600_

_Alias: Ethan_

_Date of purchase: 02/14/36_

Pages and pages of android purchases, pages that disclosed information of agreements between unknown parties, pages of different places that YT700 hadn't even heard of before. Eyes flickering back and forth over the pages, YT700 felt... conflicted. There were dozens of androids here, spanning over the course of different years. Did all these androids belong to mother? Maybe father..? YT700 sat on the ground trying to find an answer yet coming to no conclusion. 

With shaky hands, the android shut the binder and returned it to its previous place. All of this information but no answers... what was he meant to do with it? He looked up to the filing cabinet, scanning the weight to find that almost every drawer was full. Full of.. papers like those? YT700 blinked, almost reaching out to open one of the drawers before the office door burst open. The android jumped in surprise, preparing for the sight of father but instead being met with Julie. Her eyes landed on him immediately and she rushed into the room, arms wrapping firmly around his shoulders.

"Found you! Now, you seek!"

With the new startling information still processing, YT700 didn't feel like his usual self to just jump up and play another round. His shoulders immediately stiffened when she hugged him, her once comforting embrace now felt suffocating.

"You found me..." He murmured out weakly, trying to keep some enthusiasm in his voice but failing. 

Julie frowned, pulling away from the android and stepping in front of him.

"What's wrong? You don't want to play anymore?"

The YT barely met her eyes, only shrugging. "I don't know, I guess I'm kind of tired..." He offered. Of course androids couldnt really get tired, but with younger and teenage models they were programmed to mimic human characteristics; that including being tired. Julie pursed her lips before nodding.

"Yeah, I get tired too. We can play another time, right?"

The YT700 couldn't help but feel a sense of something within his programming. Even though they were stopping one of Julie's best games to play in an empty house she still remained positive. The android felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips, nodding. 

"Of course, Julie." 

Before he could say anything else, Julie was attacking him with another one of her hugs. Although he was still surprised at this, YT700 eventually returned the hug. 

"I love you, YT. You're one out of two of the bestest big brothers ever..."

Her voice was muddled by the shoulder of his shirt but he still heard her words. The android could feel himself get almost emotional, another thing programmed to make him seem more human. The fact that she saw him as an older brother made YT700 feel what he could only label as pride. 

"Just don't tell Damian I said that."

The YT700 chuckled, pulling away from the ten year old and smiling.

"Of course not. How about, we watch a movie?" 

As soon as the android suggested that, Julie's eyes lit up in excitement. 

"Race you to the couch!"

Soon enough, the ten year old was out the door and nearly halfway down the stairs. YT700 stared in surprise before hurriedly getting up, running from the room. The android turned to see Julie taking two steps at a time by practically _jumping_ down the stairs. YT700 gawked, hanging onto the stair railing as he followed suit.

"Hey, that is not only cheating but so unsafe!"

5 hours later, YT700 and Julie sat on the broken in couch watching some old movie about a talking snowman and two sisters. The small holographic screen was projected by YT700's hand, something that was equipped within the YT line. They would've watched it on a tv, if the family had one. The android came to the conclusion that it was best not to speak of it to any of the family, as they might become offended. Julie sat cross legged on the couch, leaning tiredly again YT's shoulder. 

He watched the hologram idly, every once in a while glancing back at Julie. The familiar sound of the front door opening suddenly tore through the silence of the house, catching the attention of both Julie and YT700. The thought of it being father or mother crossed the android's mind as his shoulders tensed up in anticipation. Instead, he was met with the sight of Damian's black backpack and let his shoulders assume a relaxed position. Julie hopped off the couch as Damian shut the door behind himself, locking it and turning to see the ten year old bouncing excitedly toward him.

"Damian!" 

The tired expression from a day of school was wiped off his face and replaced with a faint smile. 

"Hey, Julie. You look rather excited.."

The ten year old nodded vigorously, leaning back and forth on the balls of her feet. 

"Can we go outside today? I've been playing hide and seek with YT all day, he can't go outside so..."

Damian thought for a moment before nodding. 

"Sure, Julie. Just give me a few minutes to get changed, we can go outside in a bit."

The seventeen year old passed Julie, approaching the stairs and soon disappearing from sight. With the close of his hand, the holographic movie that YT700 had been displaying was gone. Julie was ecstatic, from the android's time being here he could tell that she wasn't out a lot. He had witnessed one night where he walked in on mother crouched down talking to her in a tone that he had never heard before. It was inside Julie's room, the android stood in the doorway silently watching. 

_"But mom, I'm old enough to be outside by myself now!"_

Mother smiled, _smiled_ , at the little girl before shaking her head.

_"I'm sorry, baby, but people'll snatch you up and take you who knows where. Wait for Damian to get home and then you can go."_

YT700 had only stared into the room in confusion. Her voice was gentle, not sharp and choppy like the tone she usually used with him. Even when she was strict with Damian about his grades and homework, it somehow held something that was so much different from how she spoke with him. Something flickered within him as he watched the pair hug, wanting too to have someone talk to him like that. Mother pulled away from Julie and smoothed over her hair. 

She turned and locked eyes with the android, YT700 froze as all traces of motherly instinct left her eyes and was replaced with a coldness. She rose from her position on the floor and he instinctively backed away from the door, unable to move farther than that. Mother stalked to the door, soon standing in the doorway with one hand on the frame. Her shadow loomed over him, the woman fairly taller than him. Without saying a word, she smiled at him but something within knew it wasn't like the type of smile Mother gave Julie. 

It was forced, twisted almost, it held a promise of something that YT couldn't recognize. Then slowly, she reached to the door knob and shut the door. It left the android alone in the hallway, LED flickering a bright yellow.

The YT700 blinked himself out of his stupor and turned the memory away, watching as Julie now sat on the floor tugging on a pair of dirty white sneakers. 

"Hey Julie?" Damian called from upstairs.

"Yeah?" Julie shouted back.

"Why is dad's office door open?"

The android froze, sure that his thirium pump stopped working for a moment. He felt his face heat up, feeling preprogrammed shame in his system. Julie finished tying her first shoe, reaching for the other. 

"YT was hiding in there today, I found him though!" She answered back nonchalantly. A beat of silence was met with the reply before Damian answered back.

"... Okay.. Don't hide in there again, okay? It's off limits."

Julie rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath before finishing putting on her other shoe. Damian soon came down the stairs, school uniform switched out for a navy blue cargo jacket and jeans. The teen stood at the bottom of the stairs and glanced at YT700, the android didn't dare meet his eyes but could feel his stare boring into him. He pulled his attention away from the android, glancing down to look over Julie's attire.

"Jacket?"

The little girl nodded, rushing up the stairs to retrieve it. That left the two in the silence of the living room. Damian returned his stare, stepping a few inches closer to the other. Finally, YT700 worked up the strength to look back. Damian's eyes locked with his, a glare so sullen that it almost reminded the android of Mother's.

"Office is off limits. Even outside of hide and seek. Got it?"

YT nodded almost immediately, desperately wanting that gaze off himself. Damian gave a slow nod back, thundering footsteps from the stairs came from Julie as she practically bounded down the steps. She stood there in a dark purple jacket that was zipped all the way up, she walked toward Damian and tugging on his own jacket sleeve. 

"Come on, Damian!" She whined.

Finally the gaze was broken, the teenager looking down to smile at Julie. 

"Alright, alright, let's go."

The pair walked to the front door, leaving to enter the cold weather and closing the door behind. That left the android by himself in the quietness of the house. Father's office was off limits now, part of him felt grateful and another part disappointed. Despite the somewhat boggling aspects of the office, YT still felt an urge to go back and sort through the papers. Maybe go through the filing cabinets, anything to help scratch the itch within him. 

Now would be too risky, despite being alone in the house who knew how long Damian and Julie would be? If they returned and saw that YT was missing from his spot on the couch, Damian would surely be onto him. This was also around the time frame that mother arrived home, father soon after, if either of them caught him they'd surely be upset. And so, the YT700 waited. He waited for an hour, sitting perfectly still on the couch before Julie and Damian came back from outside.

The time was 4:47 pm, the sky outside a dull white with clouds beginning to block out the sun. The pair entered the house with matching flushed cheeks from the cold, Julie smiling wide as she took off her jacket. She met the androids eyes and ran to him, eyes bright. YT700 returned a smile.

"I take it your trip outside was fun?"

Julie nodded, standing in front of YT and leaning back and forth against the edge of the couch.

"It was so fun! First Damian and I walked to one of the schools and hopped the fence, I didn't think that was allowed but Damian said he did it all the time, but then we..."

YT700 listened to her continue to rant, talking of their adventures and how Damian almost fell off of the monkey bars trying to get on top of them. Damian watched the two converse, looking as if he wanted to say something but saw the look of happiness on Julie's face and stopped himself. He only slightly shook his head and moved to the coat hanger, taking off his own jacket. Slipping out of his shoes, YT saw him out of the corner of his eye slip into the kitchen. 

"What do you want for dinner, Julie?" The teen called.

"Breakfast!"

"Any other options, Julie?"

"... Grilled cheese..?"

"Hell Yeah."

This was a pattern that the android had noticed, every night since he'd been there it was always Damian making dinner. Whenever he'd offer his help, Damian just politely said no. This was considered slightly odd to him, considering he did have a set basic cooking skills in his programming. Maybe it was due to the fact that him and Damian were in a neutral relationship, most likely so. The android could hear Damian rustling in the kitchen, the click of the stove dial and flicker of flames were loud compared to the quietness of the house. 

Five minutes and twenty six seconds passed before the front door opened and closed, YT700 turned to see the woman that made his shoulders hunch slightly with stress. Mother. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, she rubbed at her tired blue eyes. She wore a grey tank top with a plaid top over. Mother sighed, hanging up her purse on one of the coat hanger hooks. Julie immediately stopped talking, making her way around the couch to mother. 

"Mom!"

The woman's blue eyes looked down at her child, giving her a soft smile. 

"Hello, Julie. What have you been up to today?" She asked.

"I spent the day playing hide and seek with YT and then went outside with Damian." 

Mother outwardly grimaced at the part mentioning the android before it was replaced with the faint smile again. Damian turned from the stove and waved at the woman.

"Hey mom."

Her eyes crinkled as the smile deepened, walking to Damian and running a hand through his hair to muss it up. Her eyes glanced over the cooking on the stove before she put both hands on his shoulders and sighing. 

"Grilled cheese, huh?"

The teen nodding, flipping one of the sandwhiches. She had a proudness in her eyes as she kissed his cheek. Damian recoiled as a garbled noise left his throat, clearly thrown off by the sudden affection. 

"You always know what to do." 

Mother left the kitchen, passing by the living room before glancing back at YT700 on the couch. Her entire person changed, the smile fading from her face. Despite feeling his thirium pump tightening inside his chest, he forced a polite smile on his face. 

"Good afternoon, Mother. The children were wonderful today."

Mother only snorted, stalking up the stairs. The android watched her go, not bothered by the normal silence he received. An hour later, a voice called out.

"YT, come on in here!"

It was Julie's voice from the kitchen. Obediently, YT700 stood and walked into the kitchen to see Julie sitting at the table with a plate of grilled cheese. Damian sat on the opposite side of her, a quick glance at the four extra sandwiches on the kitchen counter and the scattered homework sitting around Damian's space told YT that he was officially done cooking. Damian glanced up at the android before looking back down at the paper in front of him, scribbling something before scratching it out. Julie was ripping off pieces of her grilled cheese and popping them into her mouth. Upon seeing YT, she gestured for him to come over. 

"Sit down..!"

He obeyed, walking to the table and pulling out the chair facing opposite to Damian. The ten year old ripped off another piece, holding it out to YT.

"Here, you should try this."

YT was about to interject before Damian spoke first. 

"Don't even try, Julie. It can't eat, doesn't have the right stuff."

Julie pouted a bit, still holding the sandwich. 

"Yes he can, he told me on the very first day we met." 

Damian attempted to reply again before another voice entered conversation. 

"Now now, Julie, you wouldn't want to wreck the poor thing, hm? Your father and I would be very disappointed if it were to leave our family so soon." 

It was mother. YT turned to see the woman in the doorway with crossed arms. She walked toward Julie, gently bending the girl's arm until it was back down to her plate. Julie frowned, thinking to herself before nodding. 

"I _would_ be pretty sad if that happened.." The younger admitted. Mother patted her arm and smiled down at her. 

"Good girl. Your dad will be home soon children, but we can start without him."

YT furrowed his brow, start what? Damian looked up from his homework and rested his elbow on the table, hand cupping his chin. 

"Start what, exactly?"

Mother got a gleam in her eye that the android had never seen before, watching her turn back to the kitchen. 

"Dinner, of course. It's been a while, how about we do... Breakfast?"

As soon as she suggested the idea, Julie looked to Damian with a shit-eating grin on her face. The seventeen year old looked as if he was about to blow a fuse before he flopped back in his seat. 

"I make dinner every night, and _this_ is the thanks I get?"

Julie giggled, mother walking back to the table and patting both of her children's shoulders. YT watched them, if he hadn't known any better he would've labeled them the picture perfect family of the year. Mother turned back to the kitchen, starting to get out a pan for eggs and several supplies. Julie hurriedly got up from her seat, joining mother at her side. Damian spent a few more moment writing on one of his papers before setting down his own and rising to join the pair. The android still sat there, feeling awkward and as if he was intruding on something.

"Oh, and YT700," It was mother, turning to him with a tight smile. "Just go.. busy yourself."

The YT model registered the command before standing, pushing in the kitchen chair and leaving the room. The time was now 6:23 pm. Sounds of the family from the other room were muffled now, the android couldn't help but feel like an intruder to the family's time together. Now, what to do... Mother had given him such a general command that he wasn't sure what to do with it. His mind drifted off to the earlier memories of father's office. 

Did he have time? Should he even try? The family was busy in the kitchen, they wouldn't notice him go upstairs, would they? The android remembered Damian's order from earlier, office was off limits. But he didn't.. mean it, right? 

YT had already been in the office, already seen everything.. Well, almost everything. His programming chided him against it, yet he found himself moving in quiet footsteps to the stairs. Reaching the top of the stairs, YT was sure to step lightly as to not cause creaks in the hardwood. He creeped down the hall, passing the bathroom and stopping in front of the office door. The android hesitated for a moment, was this wrong? 

No.. no, of course not. It was fine, he would just pop in then pop out. Reaching out his hand, YT700 opened the door and stepped into the office.


	4. Chapter 4 | Dark and Stormy Night

### Chapter 4

#### Dark and Stormy Night

The room was as the android had left it, he squinted in the darkness as night fell upon the house. Quickly, YT700 got to work. He moved toward the filing cabinet and quickly unhooked one of the drawer handles, pushing it open. Inside were rows of different colored folders, small dividers separating them into coordinated sections. With quick fingers, he quickly flipped through the papers and scanned them as fast as he could.

Most of them were tax papers and bills, nothing that he was looking for. The android huffed and stood back, gently closing the drawer. If all he could find was just bills then he wasn't sure he wanted to search through all these drawers. YT700 chewed on his bottom lip, thinking. It would take too long anyways to scan through all of them.

Out of the corner of his vision on the dark wood desk something silver caught in the moonlight, he turned his full attention to it and realized that it was in fact a lap top. Maybe Father kept more information on there? YT thought of it for a moment before deciding the probability was likely as he moved closer to the desk, scooting out the roll out chair and sitting down. He flipped open the laptop and was met with a screen asking for a password. YT sat back and thought for a moment, he barely had any interaction with father so he had little to know information on what his passwords could be. Thinking over a few general options, the android leaned forward and began to type.

**Password: ILoveMyWife123**

_**Password Incorrect.** _

The android mentally smacked himself in the face, his first attempt was what you could describe as pitiful. Who knew if Father even loved Mother? Or if they were even married? He hadn't ever seen wedding rings on their fingers, even in the rarest glances. YT700 shook away the irrelevant thoughts that were now forming in his head and turned his attention back to the screen. Onto the next option, he began typing.

**Password: ILoveMyKids234**

_**Password Incorrect**_

YT700 felt the strong need to just start banging his head against the desk. All of these meaningless attempts were getting him no where, all his efforts were frustrating. He let out a huff, rubbing his temples and closing his eyes. What did father love? What did father admire? All questions that he couldn't answer. One last try, other wise he would just face searching through the drawers. Hesitantly, he started to type.

**Password: DamianandJulie**

The android paused, adding one last touch.

**Password: DamianandJulie1**

The android entered in the password, watching tensely as the screen turned black for a moment. A brief wave of panic hit him before it was replaced with that of relief, the black screen turning into a dashboard of icons. He had successfully logged into Father's computer, YT made a small mental note of the man's password before returning to the task at hand. Father didn't have many apps or browsers on his computer, something the android hadn't expected. Father had a meager four apps on the computer composed of photos, Internet explore, a settings box, and mail.

His eyes flickered to the tiny letter icon, a red pop up on the corner of it declared that he had six new emails. The android thought for a moment, weighing out if this could help out with the information he needed to find. There was a high chance that it didn't but something still urged the YT model to click on it. Hesitantly, he drifted the cursor over the icon before selecting it with a soft click. The screen opened a new tab, it was a white background with a list of new and old mail that had been received and sent.

Scrolling through it he realized that the emails dated back to merely October 2nd, 2038. That was nearly a week ago, it didn't make sense for father to have emails this new without having some that dated further back. Maybe this was a different account? The android decided that the idea of having to search for all of the potential email acccounts father could of made was absolutely dreadfully and decided that it would be best to stick with this one instead. Some of the mail was junk mail, others was from vague email addresses that seemed to be having conversations back and forth with Father. YT700 clicked on some of the older emails and began to read through them.

****

**10/19/38**  
_'Dearest Marcel,  
_ _I do hope that you have been thinking about our arrangement? My boys have been waiting ages for a paycheck to roll in, you know how customers are. Always wanting the 'latest thing', the 'shiniest toy' to show off to their friends. Please get back to me soon, I must give them a well deserved answer.'_

__

**10/19/38**  
_'Jonathan,_  
_Yeah, I've been thinking. When are your guys gonna be ready? Nancy's picking up one of your things soon, we'll have it ready and all.'_

__

**10/20/38**  
_'Dearest Marcel,_  
_That's always good to hear, my dear. My boys are ready whenever needed, they've already got the right parts for the job. I have to admit, it is looking quite beautiful. Anyways, buyers are looking into it, get back to me and we can discuss price range for you two.'_

__

**10/22/38**  
_'Jonathan,_  
_The usual price range will be fine. Nancy is coming by tomorrow in the evening, be ready at the same spot as always. Please clean the damn thing while your guys are poking around in it as well.'_

__

**10/24/38**  
_'Dearest Marcel,_  
_I see the pick up went smoothly, that's good news. Higher ups will be in contact with you soon, be prepared at any moment for them. They do like things done quick and clean.'_

October 24th, 2038. That was the last email sent to Father from some user named Jonathan. Was Marcel father's name? And Nancy mother's? The android pushed his hair away from his face, blinking fast to keep up with the amount of information he was processing. October 24th was the day that he was brought home by mother, the android wanted it to be a coincidence but his servers told him otherwise.

All this talk of a pickup, of products being sold, buyers and higher ups, it overwhelmed the android. He tried cutting off any blooming thoughts about the emails but when he cut off one bud two more appeared in its place. Was he the thing they were talking about being picked up? The android could feel his vocal box tightening in his throat. He quickly exited out of the emails and slammed the computer shut, standing up so fast that the rolley chair skidded out from behind him.

A wave of panic washed over him, were people talking about him? He didn't know anyone else, why would they know him? It didn't make sense and the android didn't like it.

"Is there a little mouse in my kitchen?"

The sound of a new voice nearly made the android jump, almost tripping over his own feet before grabbing onto the desk and stabilizing himself. YT700 looked to the direction of the voice and nearly short circuited. It was father standing in the doorway. He was a tall man with a sturdy build, tan skin and dark brown hair clipped into what YT could describe as a grown out buzzcut. His dark brown eyes stared down at the android, the faintest of stubble on his face.

He was wearing a dark blue shirt with some sort of stains on the front under a dark brown leather jacket, jeans and sneakers worn out. The android wanted to speak to explain himself but his mind ran frazzled, no words able to come from his voice box. Father stepped into the room, immediately the android scurried backward. The man stopped and slightly raised his hand, a sign that he didn't mean any harm. YT700's eyes flickered back and forth across the man as he continued his way into the office, YT's feet stayed locked in place.

Soon Father was only a few inches in front of him, he did a once over over the android. The man reached out a hand, taking hold of YT's wrist and raising the others hand to eye level. The android felt his thirium pump tighten, partly out of nervousness of what the human might do and partly out of the overwhelming amount of pop ups that appeared in the corners of the androids vision. He watched as Father raised his hand to his eye sight, examining the cerulean blue nails that Julie had painted on the other day. She switched the colors every day, he'd gone through purple, green, pink, orange, and now blue.

He studied the android's nails for a while before dropping his wrist.

"Pretty color. Now I'll ask again,"

The android sucked in an unneeded breath as Father gave him a wirey smile.

"What is a little mouse, that's you, doing in my kitchen?"

YT700 felt his face heat up, about to respond before another voice spoke up for him.

"It was helping me with my homework, I needed something printed out and Julie was using my computer."

Father turned away from the android, leaving a window of space for YT700 to see the doorway of the office. There stood Damian, making brief eye contact with he android before returning his gaze to his father. The teen's usually lax shoulders were now squared, a defensive position. 

"Damian, Damian. You're such a smart boy, why make an android do your work for you? Know better."

Father seemed to buy it, Damian only nodded curtly. 

"I know. I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

Father moved toward the door before pausing and turning around. 

"You, android, go to your port and shut down for the night. We won't need your assistance anymore."

YT simply nodded, Father turned back and walked past Damian and down the hall. It left the android and teen by themselves, Damian stared at him with the same cold glare that Mother had. He sidestepped, YT700 took it as a sign to leave the room. He hurriedly walked out of the room, feeling shame bare down on his shoulders. The android ducked his head and quietly walked down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs to his left was a laundry room.

It was small and cramped, the room only fit a washer and a dryer, a rectangular window at the top of the wall. In the very corner of the room was YT700s designated charging port, it looked thoroughly used and old but it still worked. The android stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. The room was bathed in blue, the only light coming from the window. He stared at the window, listening to the family from outside the door talking with each other. 

Even though their words were muffled, it was still a sound that rung loud in the house. The android listened for a while before stepping back into his port, biting his bottom lip. Was he going somewhere? He must be, what Damian said the first time they met along with father's emails only led to one conclusion. Okay, so he was going somewhere, where? 

Well he was being bought, first of all. And sometime soon. Where could he possibly be brought though? Back to a Cyberlife store? The thought alone made YT's head hurt. He didn't **want** to be bought by another person, didn't want to leave the familiarity of the house. 

The android rung his hands, eyes flickering back and forth as he tried thinking of a solution. He definitely wasn't being bought from some stranger, but if mother and father no longer wanted him, would they even notice he was gone? The android thought in silence for a moment before his gaze drifted to the window. It was big enough for him to fit through, he was sure if it. He couldn't go now though, if he did they'd surely notice he was gone.

The android mapped out a plan in his head, the steps falling into place. He would power down in his port until everyone was asleep, then he'd make his way into the night. YT700 stepped back into his place on the wall, setting up his internal clock to 'wake up', in a sense. He let his gaze fall forward, eyes glossing over as his vision blurred into darkness.

 

Six hours later, the YT model's programming woke him. Carefully, the android scanned the downstairs area to make sure everyone was asleep. Surely enough, all heat signatures were upstairs. YT700 stepped out of his place on the wall, acting fast. First he'd have to switch out his clothes, or at least his shirt. The android carefully stepped forward to the dryer, trying to pop open the door as quietly as possible.

Through some thurough searching, he found a dark blue hoodie with a faded saying on the front. Upon further inspection YT realized it read 'Old Redford Academy', a quick internet search told him that it was a preparatory school for grades all the way up to 12th. It was safe to assume the clothing item was Damian's, the thought made YT hesitate before laying it out on the top of the dryer's surface. There was a low probability of Damian even seeing him, why would he? The android pulled off his own shirt, folding it neatly and tucking it in the back of the dryer. 

Pulling on the hoodie, he found that it fit awkwardly on his frame. Damian being taller than him made the hoodie baggier, end of the sweat shirt ending midway down his thigh and sleeves slightly passing his fingertips. His pants and shoes seemed passable for human attire, nothing signifying he was an android stood out. YT700 bent down and reached further into the dryer, pushing aside different garments. He needed something to cover his LED, if anyone saw it flickering in the darkness of night he'd surely be called out for it. 

He finally came across something that YT couldn't help but scrunch up his face at. There was one hat in the dryer-- a pink and purple striped beanie with a wobbly Pom-Pom sitting atop the knitted structure. It was probably Julie's, YT examined it for longer before pulled it on. It was a bit snug admittedly, but it reached far enough down his forehead to cover the cool blue light. The android looked over himself, taking a small breath. He was ready, he'd get away from this house as far as possible and never turn back.

Maybe someone would take him in, maybe someone would talk to him with soft words rather than harsh ones. As quietly as possible, YT placed two hands on the top of the dryer and hoisted himself up. He winced as parts of the dryer caved in, little dents would surely form. Now on his hands and knees, YT crawled toward the window. He reached out one hand, grasping the windowsill for balance before reaching out the other to take hold of the lock. 

The android struggled between keeping his balance and trying to turn the lock. As soon as he heard that soft _click_ , YT couldn't help but smile in victory. Slowly, he lifted the window up until he had a clear space to work with. YT moved into a crouching position, soon reaching both arms through the open space. The cold hit his arms first as he shivered, the thrill of being so close from leaving yet so far made his thirium pump speed up. 

Bracing both hands on the outside of the house, in one swift motion the android all but jumped out the window. Luckily he made no sound and for a moment felt himself falling, vision a blur. With a soft _thump_ he hit the ground, gasping at the sudden impact. He laid there for a moment feeling the cold air ghost over his form. The android let his vision readjust and was met by a pitch black canvas splattered with shining white stars. 

He blinked a few times, not sure at first what he was looking at before he realized it was the sky. The night sky to be specific, something the android had only seen in pictures apart of his program. Laid out on the cold grass, it felt like he was frozen in time. Slowly sitting up, his gaze lingered from the sky back to the house. The house was a beige color, some paint chipping off the sides. 

He was _out_. Finally. The android stumbled to his feet, a thrill of something unknown passing through his systems. He did a three-sixty, not sure which direction to go. YT stopped as his eyes set sight on sparkling lights in the distance, something he recognized as lights of the city. After a beat, he began to walk. He wanted to go faster, he wanted to leave that old dark house behind. The android picked up the pace to speed walking.

He wanted to forget he'd ever been to that place, wanted to push the thought of people like mother out of his head.

YT began jogging lightly, something he'd never had the chance to do before

He **wanted** to leave the ominous question of the identities of all those androids behind, never **wanted** to think of them again.

Soon he began sprinting.

He was getting away, he could do it, a light laugh left his throat as he continued running. The pavement pounded below his feet but that encouraged him to move faster. 

YT felt like he was completely and utterly flying, drifting on a high that he never would've thought existed. The android whooped and jumped, things that he knew felt wrong in his programming but were oh so right. He cackled, the lights of the city getting bigger as the cold wind of Detroit howled in his ears. Soon he was gone, leaving the neighborhood behind.


	5. Chapter 5 | Brave New World

### Chapter 5

#### Brave New World

**October 30th, 2038**

**1:47 AM**

The android kept running for fourty seven straight minutes. The Pom-Pom atop his head bobbed up and down as he ran through the neighborhood, the hoodie awkwardly bouncing around and slipped down every time he pulled the bottom up. YT felt the wind snagging at his clothes but he didn't care. The blurred houses of the neighborhood around him started growing sparser by the minute and soon were replaced with more inner city houses. YT found himself slowing down from a run to a jog and soon a shuffled walk.

He stopped on the sidewalk and bent over, leaning his hands on his knees. The android huffed, letting data process slowly instead of letting it hit him all at once. He had left Mother's house, he had taken Damian and Julie's house, _and_ had just uncovered something that filled him with an unknown sensation that left him.. uncomfortable. It all came back to him, running from the house, stealing the clothes, the _androids and emails in father's computer_ it... frightened him. Yes, frightened was the right word.

YT frowned, yes he was supposed to emulate human emotions to mimic a human teenager but this? It was different. It was.. unrecognizable, to say the least. Frightened for those pages filled with androids informations, frightened by the way he was being treated in that house, _frightened_ of himself for these thoughts and actions that hung on the thin line of his obedience to his program and his circumstances. He had just _run away from his owners_.

_What had he done?_

This was bad, very bad. If they found out he was gone, and they found him in the city in their children's clothing? The android shuddered at the thought of what they'd do. His programming beckoned him to return to the house back through the window and pretend nothing had happened, continue following orders from the family yet... A new voice seemed to whisper to him, something he'd never heard before. It told him to leave, he already knew what was coming, so why stay?

He'd be taken from the house by some sort of company it sounded like, sent off to who knows where? The new voice gave him a new perspective, wondering if maybe he'd be better off leaving on his own. YT straightened up, smoothing out the wrinkles in the dark blue pullover he wore. Something inside knew he was doing the right thing, this was good. The android closed his eyes for a few moments to calm his stress levels. 

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked straight ahead. With short footsteps he began walking at a generous pace before remembering he was still on the outskirts of the city, still not far away enough from Mother and Father. YT sped up his walk and continued, shoving his hands in the hoodie pockets and hunching his shoulders to cover the bottom part of his face with the collar of the shirt. 

The android violently shivered as a cold wind blew through the streets. He couldn’t help but curse at his own programming. After all, it _did_ make him blend into humans as smoothly as possible. Obviously, weather wasn’t an exception to that. He silently thanked himself for bundling up in thicker material than what he was originally wearing. The android peered around the street, taking in his environment. 

The street and sidewalks were empty, every once in a while a person passed him but didn't pay him much mind. It was quiet, the faint sound of cars honking and the murmur of people played faintly in the distance. The sky was pitch black, the only source of light came from the street lamps. The yellow light painted the houses in deep oranges and bathed the street in burnt reds, the sidewalk stained soft yellow. YT took it all in, making sure it was committed to his memory. He continued walking down the sidewalk with soft footsteps, only slightly shivering as the wind continued to blow.

YT found he had a lot of feelings about the city, it was different in the best way possible while completely crude to say the least. At first he wasn't too sure when he'd reach the core of the city, he hadn't a single inkling of what he might be met with. The android didn't have to worry too much about missing it though as it hit him like smack in the face. There were more cars on the street than when he was in the neighborhood, the vehicles splashing through the street's rain puddles as they drove by. Towering buildings stood higher than YT could've ever imagined.

He tried to keep walking without stopping to stare at each building, not wanting to run into anyone. There weren't many people on the sidewalks walking and those who were paid little to no attention to him. The most of an interaction he got were questioning glances, for a moment the android forgot he had the appearance of a young teenager. Maybe not the most normal thing to see a shivering teen with an abnormally tight hat over his head and wearing a hoodie so big that he was swimming in it, but no one bothered him. YT only kept his stare forward, not wanting to initiate any contact.

Every once in a while he came across a human paired with an android. YT couldn't help but stare, mainly at the android who paid him no attention. He didn't dare make eye contact with any of the passing androids, an irrationality telling him that any of the androids would somehow recognize him. YT kept on walking, coming to a small plaza of sorts that held a plethora of stores. He spotted a small bench along one of the street curbs and moved to it, circling around and sitting in one swift motion. 

YT leaned back and glanced around him, trying to examine the different buildings. One was a shopping center, the windows were dark now but the android could still see the silhouettes of mannequins posing in the latest style. Another was an office building, several of the window lights still on. Most other stores were closed, not much to look at. It wasn't until he felt a tap at his shoulder that he was temporarily pulled out of his daze. The android turned, looking to see who might've reached out to him only to be met with the sight of a man who seemed to be stumbling over himself even as he stood still.

"Hey... _kid_..."

YT tried his best not to flinch back as the smell of alcohol hit him right as the man started speaking. It reeked from his whole being, actually, something that made him want to turn away. The man's speech was slurred, the android might've been new to the city and its people but he didn't need all that to know the guy was drunk. He hung onto the back of the bench seat as if it was his lifeline, shifting back and forth.

"... Yes?" YT spoke back hesitantly, not sure what the man wanted or why he chose him specifically to talk to. 

The guy burped and hung his head momentarily before picking it back up. 

"Yeah, what's your deal? I know you've been eyeing me all night at the bar. What, you wanna fight or some shit?"

The android's ears perked up at the threat of a fight. He was only in the city for, what, seven minutes? And now humans were trying to pick fights with him. YT put on a confused expression to match how he felt and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong guy. I'm not even old enough for bars, and I wouldn't enjoy fighting you." YT responded, trying to sound as polite as he could.

Suddenly hands were on the back of his hoodie, nearly pulling him out of his seat and upward so he was face to face with the drunkard. 

"Don't fucking play dumb with me, I _saw you_ , prick."

The android felt his stress levels rise from twenty six percent to seventy six percent faster than he could process. The man's breath reeked in his face, YT squirmed in his grip. He could feel the cold October air ghosting over his exposed belly, adding another level of uncomfortableness to the whole situation. The man let go with one hand and pulled it back, YT was sure that he was done for before a voice cut through the quiet night. 

"Hey, asshole! The fuck are you doing?"

That stunned the guy for a minute, YT took the opportunity to twist himself enough so that he could flail one arm outward and effectively hit the guy on the side of the head. He spluttered, letting go with the final hand to bring it to his head before colliding with the brick wall behind him. YT slid off the bench and into the side of the street, panting hard as his stress levels came down. The android wasted no time to get to his feet and start sprinting again down the sidewalk. He ignored the shouting and cursing behind him, feet hitting the pavement so hard that it made him wince.

YT continued running and never looked back, turning corners and passing different people that gave him confused looks. Finally he turned into an alleyway, making sure he was deep enough inside to take a break from the running. YT slumped against the wall, head tilted back as he breathed hard. That was... an interesting experience for his first time in the city. His stress levels had gone down to a thirty six percent now, still better than the seventies.

He could still feel the feeling of his shirt collar pressing against his neck, it was an unpleasant one that lingered longer than he'd like it to. Now he officially had no idea where he was. Maybe that was good, that meant he probably got farther from Mother and Father. In the quietness of the alleyway, something picked up in his audio sensors. It was a low thumping noise, a slight trill of vibration dashed in every once in a while. 

People talking, laughing, some whoops as the noise was played louder. YT pushed himself off the wall, trying to zero in on the source of the noise. He found himself searching the alley, scanning the dark walls for anything useful until he saw it-- a rusty, silver door handle that glinted in the moonlight. The android approached it, examining how a piece of neon orange duct tape wrapped around the end of the handle. He tilted his head, the source of the noise was right behind there but what it was? He had no idea. 

Without thinking, YT reached out to the handle and slowly turned it. Surprisingly it wasn't locked, the door creaking loudly. The android took one last glance around him to see if anyone was watching before stepping in completely and closing the door behind him. This was definitely the noise source, vibrations channeling through the walls around him. He was in a narrow hallway that was bathed in red light coming from the ceiling's fluorescent light bulbs. Some of the walls had marks on them, some were straight up holes that looked as if they'd been punched in. 

YT let himself examine the small space, noticing how the zig zag patterned carpet was ripped up in some places to reveal hardwood underneath. The android carefully avoided the exposed area, not wanting to make them worse or trip on them. He looked up to see a dark beaten down wood door with a much more clean door knob, several pieces of multi-colored yarn were tied around the knob's middle. Curiously, YT stepped forward to the door and pressed his ear to it to listen better to what was happening. The sound now was one that he could identify as music, most likely blaring from speakers that drowned out the majority of muffled conversations he was hearing. 

He pulled away, now wanting to go in and see what was happening even more. Slowly he took hold of the circular knob, noting how it was slightly warm, and stepped into the room. The first thing he was met with was a body, it was a human girl who seemed to be wildly attempting to dance with another girl. She crashed into him as he shut the door, making YT let out a gasp of surprise. She only glared back at him before stopping the motion and retreating further into the room with her friend. 

YT took one look around and found that he didnt have the words to describe it whatsoever. It was a big room, a small kitchen on the right side and a more living room style space on the left. A small half wall that only came up to his waist separated a portion of the room from the door he had entered through. There was a beaten up green couch on the left side accompanied by a coffee table of sorts, a good amount of people strewn across the couch as they laughed and talked with each other. There were two very large speakers hung up on the wall, just as YT had suspected. 

The main room branched off into a hallway of sorts, several people in the hall were leaned against the wall or sitting on the floor having their own conversations. The kitchen was one big half wall with a doorway cut out for people to come and go, he could see people hanging out in there as well. Upon further investigation YT realized that most of the room, if not all, was composed of teenagers. It ranged from the ages thirteen to nineteen, a quick scan helped the android figure out the percentages of that. Not many people noticed him enter the room, YT found that he was rather grateful for that. 

He soon realized that he'd just been standing at the door for quite a while when he was met with several strange glances. Moving with rushed thinking, YT started to shuffle into the room and blend into the crowd. The smell of sweat hit him hard, he slightly grimaced at the nauseating aroma. It was mixed in with something sweet though, something the android couldn't recognize. Through some apologies and wiggling, YT made it to a more open part of the room and spotted an empty spot on the couch. 

Gladly, he took it and immediately slouched into the material. It was soft, he sunk down in the cushions right as he sat down. For a while he examined his environment, many of the teens were dancing with each other. Some were having conversations though, in places like the kitchen and the hallway. The music was pounding, the lighting in the room shifting from blue to magenta to orange all too fast. 

YT let his head fall back, closing his eyes as he felt his systems overheating. He felt the couch dip from another weight, someone sitting next to him. YT looked to his left to see that a girl had sat only a six inches away from him. He took a once over at her, noticing a plethora of rings decorated both of her hands before turning his attention forward again. From what YT understood, it was rude for people to stare for too long. 

Neither spoke a word for a few minutes before she shifted her body so she was facing him.

"Hi."

Her voice was loud over the booming music. At first he wasn't too sure she was talking to him, but it was safe to assume considering the circumstances. He tilted his head to face her while still leaning it against the couch. 

"Hey."

Silence again. She did a once over at him, the gaze of her dark brown, almost black, eyes made him only slightly uncomfortable. She soon folded her legs underneath herself, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. 

"So, you go to Old Redford?"

The sudden question left YT's mind blank, not sure what she was referencing before remembering he was wearing Damian's sweatshirt that very plainly read the teen's high school. Quickly, he caught on.

"Oh. _Oh_ , um... Yeah, I..."

What was he _doing?_ Lying, that's what. And doing a poor job too. He didn't have time to hesitate, she was looking at him weirdly now. He cleared his throat, starting again. 

"Well, I don't... Exactly go yet. I.. I'm new, I'm a.. Transfer student."

The girl seemed to buy the lie, slowly nodding as he stumbled over only a few words. She soon stuck out a hand, it was an invite to a handshake. 

"I'm Nadia. I go to Redford, it'll be pretty cool to say I knew the new kid before he's been knew." Nadia joked, matching a rythym to her play on words. She quirked an eyebrow, tilting her head. "What about you? What's your name?" 

That was the big question, what was his name? Mother hadn't given him a name.. She ordered him not to take any name given by anyone. YT panicked for a moment, not sure what to say. 

"I.. My name--"

He frantically scanned his servers for any names that came to mind. Damian? No, that's weird. Marcel? Even weirder. 

_"Do you believe in Angels?"_

He was back in Julie's room, a memory. He sat criss crossed on the floor, hands folded neatly in his lap as Julie sat across from him. There was a half finished puzzle between the two, something they did often on quiet days. The android looked up to stare at the girl in front of him and frowned. 

_"I have no personal beliefs. Why, do you?"_

Julie shrugged, idly playing with a puzzle piece. 

_"I don't know. Damian doesn't, I know that."_

YT nodded, making a mental note of the seventeen year old's belief. The android examined the puzzle, scanning it and its pieces to try and figure out which pieces would fit where. Julie set down her piece down and smoothed it out on the floor. 

_"I know some angels names though. Grandma believed in them, there's Michael, there's Murial, Castiel, Abaddon, Uriel,"_

YT listened as Julie continued to rattle off angel names, vaguely impressed by how many she knew. He listened as she continued. 

_“There's one I like, he told Mary she was having a baby. I think Grandma liked him too, he was--"_

__

"--Gabriel. My name is Gabriel." 

__

There was a shift in his systems, one that made him seize up slightly and feel something lock up inside him. It was like someone was cracking a glow stick that was just too stubborn to bend. An error message appeared in the top corner of his vision. He grit his teeth and suddenly the sensation was gone, the error message disappearing from sight. 

__

_My name is Gabriel._

__

He reached out his hand, taking Nadia's gently and shaking it. She nodded, giving him a small smile. 

__

"It's nice to meet you, Gabriel. You don't seem like the party type, why're you here?" 

__

Nadia snorted, gesturing to the entire room. 

__

"In fact, how did you even _find_ this place? Only locals know it." 

__

YT- Gabriel- quickly replied to her, remembering back to his run. He told her of how a man tried to attack him and he just kept running, never looking back. She seemed sympathetic to his story, listening as he explained he just sorta stumbled into the place. 

__

"Well, you're here now." She joked with a smile, brushing a lock of her black hair behind her ear. Gabriel returned a nervous laugh, nodding in agreement. Suddenly, Nadia leaned in close to his ear.

__

"How'd you like to have some fun, new kid?" She whispered, pulling away.

__

Gabriel watched her pull back, slightly surprised as he watched a wicked smile tug at her lips. He thought for a moment, mouth slightly parted as he felt the bass from the speakers underneath his fingertips. First night of being his own person, why not spend it at some place like this? He licked his lips before nodding, swallowing hard. This was part of his preprogrammed system, a synthetic thrill of euphoria that washed over teens whenever they were even so much as _tempted_ to completely and utterly lose it. 

__

This was definitely the right time to ride the wave of fated teenage rebellion. Gabriel nodded, his own version of a smile playing across his face.

__

"Hell yeah."

_-_

Gabriel was definitely having fun. Nadia managed to get him to loosen up a bit and persuaded him to try dancing, something he had never tried before. It started off as just a simple foot slide and a snap to the beat of the music, soon turning into a full on get down. He tried matching Nadia's movements, her body choppy yet tasteful as she headbanged to the sound of drums. The pair moved around the party to different places, Nadia introduced him to some people she knew and they'd always engage in short conversations until it was time to move onto something else. 

__

Gabriel vaguely remembered Nadia handing him a thin clear blue bottle to which he examined for a few seconds before drinking it down to the halfway mark. Now after the two hours, he sat with Nadia in the hallway that was admittedly more quiet than the actual party going on. The pair were stood against the wall, Nadia was picking lint off of her tights and Gabriel watched a circle of people play some sort of card game through a half cracked open door that was only a few inches to his left in front of him. A few people were sat on the floor smoking from thin black sticks, blue ends flickering with light as short puffs of white vapor left their mouths. The hallway was murky to say the least, it felt slower and more muddled than the chaotic energy of the party. 

__

Nadia hummed and came back up from her tights, satisfied with the job she's done. 

__

"I should really carry a lint roller around or something, I'm gonna ruin my nails man.." She murmured, rubbing said nails against her shirt as if that'd smooth them out.

__

Gabriel shrugged, not taking his eyes off the people in the room.

__

"Might not matter. Where would you put it, anyways?"

__

Nadia seemed to think on his words before nodding. She glanced at him for a moment before following his path of sight, landing on the people. Nadia snorted out a chuckle, Gabriel turned in confusion as to what she could be laughing about.

__

"What?"

__

"Nothing, nothing, it's just... Are you that _enthralled_ by a bunch of scrubs playing Uno?" 

__

Gabriel couldn't really say that he was _that_ interested, but upon watching them bicker with each other it had gained some attention. He shrugged, ready to defend himself.

__

"No, it's just.. I'm not, okay?"

__

Nadia covered her mouth, beginning to shake with laughter before Gabriel joined her in her fit of giggles. 

__

"Why are you _laughing_ at me, Nadia?" He protested, even though he himself couldn't stop his own stifled laughter. She just waved him off, doubled over as her shoulders shook. Nadia straightened up, clearing her throat. 

__

"You sure do know how to make a girl laugh.." She chuckled weakly. "I'm gonna go get some water, now I got a dry mouth thanks to you." 

__

Gabriel nodded, watching as she began stepping over people's outstretched legs to leave the hallway. That left the android alone, staring at a broken picture frame of an embroidered sunflower in front of him. He could hear people in the rooms linked to the hallway, some were yelling, some were crying, and some were making noises that the android didn't care to hear. Gabriel sighed to himself, thinking back on the nights summary. Maybe it was the party or the drink he had received from Nadia, but thinking back to his decision to leave the house didn't seem all that bad anymore.

__

He leaned his head back and tilted his chin toward the ceiling, trying to plan out his next move. He could stay here and wait until the late afternoon of the day, Gabriel couldn't risk being seen by Mother or Father. The android could find a bus station to take him to outer Detroit, skip a few towns and get to a different state maybe. Gabriel slowly tilted his head down, tapping his hands against his thighs. He let his gaze travel around the hall for a while, letting it soon land on the half open door of the card players room.

__

From the outside it seemed rather dark, the room bathed in a dark indigo color that only shed light on certain objects Gabriel could make out. In the center of the room was a rectangular shaped table, the android could make out the silhouettes of five people sat around the table, most of them making a ruckus. There were a few empty chairs, they could've been reserved for people or they could've been extras, Gabriel wasn't too sure. He watched the room for a while, letting his shoulders slump down as he let out a huff of air. Gabriel looked over his shoulder to see if Nadia was anywhere close, searching for the ravenette.

__

He scanned the crowd, no sign of her. The android began idly looking over random people, examining each of their features. It wasn't until he set eyes on a specific boy that he couldn't help but let his eyes wander. His body posture was lazy to say the least, body stretched out across the lumpy piece of furniture like a cat basking in sunlight. His head was tilted back, talking to some girl with a charming smirk on his face. 

__

Gabriel couldn’t help but let his eyes wander, taking in how thick black leather chorded bracelets wrapped around each wrist and how his spiky blonde hair stayed in place even when he jostled his head. The android examined his face, a small glittering nose stud in his right nostril and a slightly flushed expression on his face, and those _eyes_ that were half lidded as he stared at the girl were.. were...

__

_Staring right back at him._

__

Gabriel kept eye contact for a few seconds before realizing he had been caught staring and quickly turned his head away, shifting his feet as he felt his face heat up. He felt like he was a young child who had been caught stealing from the cookie jar. Deciding that the ground looked rather interesting, the Android kept his gaze on the floor and lightly kicked at a loose floor board. After a moment Gabriel cautiously looked back to determine if the guy was still looking at him. It wasn’t like he was, there wasn’t much to look at after all.

__

He moved his gaze upward to see that _yep he was definitely still staring._ The boy had a small grin on his face, his attention completely turned away from the girl and now shifted to him. Gabriel’s eyes widened and he quickly looked away, looking back to the floor. Slowly, the Android side eyed the boy to watch what he’d do next. He was still smiling, now kicking out his legs and pushing himself off of the couch.

__

He stretched for a moment before making his way over to Gabriel, hands stuck casually in his jeans pockets. Gabriel watched as he stepped over people’s outstretched legs and other discarded objects. Soon enough he was at the right side of Gabriel, leaning against the wall with a small huff. The Android looked away, practically feeling the confident energy radiate from the teen. There was a few seconds of silence before the boy tilted his head toward Gabriel. 

__

“Yknow, I have working eyes.” The teen stated in a teasing voice, now fully looking at the android. “I could see you staring at me.” 

__

Gabriel said nothing, finding that he felt a lot smaller next to the other. The boy examined him, shifting his weight to his right foot. 

__

“Saw you talking with Nadia earlier, nice girl, hard to believe you guys just... _clicked_ so easily though.”

__

Hearing that the teen knew Nadia made him lower his guard a bit. Nadia was nice, if she was nice maybe the boy was nice too? Gabriel raised his head to the other, meeting eye contact for a third time with the teen. His eyes were a light green, almost grey color. The other smiled a bit wider, a dimple appearing on his right cheek. 

__

“Ah, that got your attention.”

__

Gabriel ignored the comment and tucked a stray piece of hair under his hat. 

__

“How do you know Nadia?”

__

The teen seemed to think about his answer for a moment before replying in a smooth tone. 

__

“We’re in the same class, been going to the same schools since kindergarten, after all that I’d be surprised if I didn’t know Nadia by this point.”

__

Gabriel nodded, listening to his explanation. Off a whim of what Nadia did to him earlier, the Android stuck out his hand as an invitation to a handshake. 

__

“My name is Gabriel.”

__

The teen stared at his hand for a moment, raising his eyebrow before looking back up to Gabriel.

__

“You shake?”

__

The android furrowed his eyebrows, was this not a common thing most teens did in introduction..? Maybe Nadia was one of the few that did it. Hesitantly he started pulling back his hand only to stop when the boy rolled his eyes with a light laugh.

__

“My guy, I’m _fucking_ with you. I’m Alex.”

__

Alex took his hand in his grip and shook it with gusto, both of their hands falling after a few seconds. Gabriel couldn’t help but inwardly shudder at the feeling of his hand, Nadia’s hand earlier had been soft and warm, definitely a bit sweaty from the heat of the room but nice nonetheless. Alex’s hand was also soft but didn’t seem to radiate any heat whatsoever. It was as if he had just gotten here and didn’t have the chance to sweat it out with the rest of the party’s occupants. Alex took a once over at the other before meeting his eyes again. 

__

“Saw you looking at my guys in the room right there,” Alex gestured vaguely to the card players room in front of them. “You play?” 

__

Gabriel shook his head, crossing his arms across his chest. 

__

“I don’t, no. I’ve never played cards before, actually..” the Android murmured, watching as Alex’s eyes went wide. “You’ve never played cards before?” He asked in disbelievance. Gabriel shook his head again, amused at the somewhat comical expression on his face. Alex scoffed in mock shock, pushing off the wall and straightening out his blazer. 

__

“Now you have to play. Come on, walk in with me. I’ve been keeping them waiting for a while, I guess.” Alex suddenly reached down to take hold of Gabriel’s wrist and before he knew it he was being pulled with the teen. The Android stumbled a bit at first before matching his speed with Alex. He pushed open the door more, tugging Gabriel in with him before closing it. Alex turned back to him with the same wicked smile on his face from earlier. 

__

“You’ll have fun, don’t worry.”

__

Alex walked past Gabriel toward the table of people, twisting his head back and nodding toward Gabriel as a sign for him to follow. The android found himself obedient, examining the room in more detail. There was a mattress with an array of blankets piled on top in the corner, a reading lamp turned off next to it. There was some old graffiti on the walls, names upon names in different fonts and colors sprayed on the peeling wallpaper. Alex made his way to the table, sitting in one of the empty chairs.

__

Gabriel stood for a moment, not sure what to do and standing with hesitation. The human watched him in amusement before pulling out an empty chair beside him, patting the cushion before sitting back in his own chair. The android saw this and quickly sat down, slightly scooting himself in closer to the table and cautiously placing his elbows in a relaxed manner on the wooden surface. Looking around the table, Gabriel examined the details. There were chips and scratches in the surface, drawings done in scribbled ink decorating the edges.

__

Cards were scattered about, pieces of papers laced with scrawled writings were placed in one neat pile. Around the table were about four people at most, all very different in their own ways. One was a small scrawny girl with red dyed hair and wandering eyes who sat in a leather office chair too big for her, another was a boy who twitched every ten or so seconds and laughed with another occupant at the table who sat in a half broken lawn chair. Looking around the table, Gabriel realized that all chairs were different from the other. Alex sat in a green suede spin chair and Gabriel himself sat in a plastic maroon and grey school chair. 

__

Taking a glance back at the teen, Gabriel examined his body posture. He was relaxed in the chair, arms occupying both arm rests and fingers tapping them rythmically. For a few moments Gabriel wasn’t so sure what was supposed to happen, all that was happening was more of conversation and not so much of actual card playing. It wasn’t until one card player, a girl with one bun on each side of her head, spoke up that Gabriel’s attention snapped back. 

__

“Hey Al, what’s with the new guy?” She asked as if he couldn’t hear, jutting out a finger and gesturing to Gabriel. Alex waved a hand over at her before gesturing to the android. “This, Bria, is my new shiny toy.” Gabriel raised an eyebrow at his words and turned to look back at him, Alex only winked at him. “Everyone, Gabriel. Gabriel, everyone.” He gestured to the table, a small introduction. The boy who twitched sat forward in his seat, studying Gabriel. 

__

“Oh.. Cool... Gabriel, are you.. in?”

__

The android blinked for a few seconds, confused at the statement. 

__

“What do you mean, ‘am I in’?”

__

“I mean, are you _in?_ ”

__

Gabriel still didn’t know what he meant and only looked back at Alex helplessly. The quirked smile slid from his face, replaced with a more tight lipped one. 

__

“No Toby, he is not in. Gabe here has never played before, he’s just sitting in to observe.”

__

The boy named Toby looked confused, maybe even slightly offended. 

__

“He shouldn’t be here if he ain’t in, it’s-“

__

Alex stared at him with an intense glare, immediately shutting up Toby. 

__

“It’s fine. He won’t say anything, will you Gabriel?”

__

Gabriel noticed how silence fell upon the room like a thick blanket. He glanced around at the card players, most looked nervous and others looked as if they wanted to say something but stayed silent. Gabriel looked at Alex carefully, studying his expectant face and determined body posture. What had he gotten himself into? What was _Alex_ into? There was something unknown about their card game that made the android uneasy. He paused for a moment before nodding. 

__

“Yeah. No one will even know I was here.” 

__

Alex sat back in his seat and the warm smile returned to his face, leaning forward to the table.

__

“What did I tell you guys?”

__

Gabriel let out a breath that he didn’t even know he was holding. The chatter started up gradually, the tenseness in the room dispersing into a new air. Cards were shuffled and passed out to every person at the table except for Gabriel. Soon they began playing, the room once again filled with laughing and talk.

__

After watching for about a half hour, Gabriel didn’t quite understand what the object of the game was. Every once in a while Alex would point out little things to him like how to tell if someone was holding out a card on you and other stuff like that but otherwise the Android was just as lost as he was coming in. Gabriel only nodded along though, wanting to stay polite to the blonde. Alex tapped him on the shoulder, catching his attention. 

__

“You know how to shuffle?”

__

Gabriel shook his head, Alex seemed to smile at this. 

__

“I’ll teach you, it’ll give you at least some card experience.”

__

And that he did. Alex broke down the steps for him, separating the stack and using your pointer fingers to bend both piles so it would be easier to make them fold over each other. He watched Alex go trough the motions smoothly, the cards clicking neatly together as he bent the piles into each other. The first time Gabriel tried it the cards went in all separate directions, some of them flying off the table. Alex chuckled at this, the Android felt his face heat up. 

__

“You’ll get it Gabe, everyone starts off like this too.” 

__

Gabriel only nodded along, knowing this might be a skill that served no purpose besides entertainment yet still collected the cards and tried again. After another ten minutes the door to the room opened, the silhouette of an unknown person standing in the doorway. Alex looked up and a grin broke over his face, standing from his seat. 

__

“Hey! Glad you’ve come back, thought we were gonna have to go up against Jensen next week with one person short for a second there.”

__

The figure stepped into the room, shaking his head.

__

“I’m not back for that, Alex, and you know it.”

__

Gabriel froze, hands stopping right as he was about to split the deck in half. He knew that voice, there was no doubt. He listened as Alex and the other boy talked, not daring to raise his head. 

__

“I’m not so sure what you’re talking about, I can’t recall, my mother’s side has short term memory loss y’know-“

__

“Do you not stop talking? Jesus Christ, I’m gonna need that money back. You know, the money that you’ve _owed_ me for six weeks now?”

__

“Right right, but you see we had a deal...”

__

Gabriel carefully pushed out his chair, not wanting to make any noise that’d draw attention to him. He stood from his place, keeping his head low. Gabriel shoved his hands in the hoodie’s front pocket and stuck to the darker shadows of the room. He was almost to the door now, a sliver of light creeped in from the hall outside. There was an open space behind Alex that he could just creep past, Gabriel was sure the human wouldn’t mind if he slipped out until the boy he was talking to left.

__

He felt Alex’s green eyes following him as he carefully made his way out of the doorway, thankful that he didn’t say anything. Just when he thought he was out of the woods, he found that he was going to face a rude awakening.

__

“Hey, where the hell do you think you’re going?”

__

Gabriel froze, only two steps out the doorway. He clenched his jaw, feeling his stress levels slowly rising. It was fine, that’s what he told himself, he was wearing different clothes and his hair was covered up by the hat. Slowly, the Android turned and looked up to the owner of the voice. His suspicions were confirmed and his stress levels spiked.

__

Standing in front of him was the seventeen year old he had spent nearly an entire week with, all interactions between the two had been stiff and tense. With hands shoved into the cargo jacket’s pockets, Gabriel met the familiar cold blue eyes of Damian. He didn’t know what to say, his mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish as he tried to talk but found that no words came out. Damian stepped closer, narrowing his eyes. 

__

“I _said_ , where the _hell_ do you think you’re going?” 

__

Gabriel’s stress levels were at eighty nine percent, the Android could feel his internal temperature regulator trying to cool him down. He jumped when he felt Alex clasp a hand around his shoulders and pull him close. 

__

“Hey, you’re spooking him Damian. This is Gabriel, he’s just leaving to go take a piss or something.” 

__

The Android side eyed Alex who was putting on a smile laced with fake confidence. Damian was taller than the both of them, if Alex was intimidated by the seventeen year old Gabriel could understand why. Damian only rolled his eyes and raised two fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose.

__

“Why do you even _try_ lying to me, Alex?” Damian sighed out, opening his eyes and examining Gabriel further. He narrowed his eyes and locked eyes with the android’s eyes. “Don’t I know you?” 

__

Just as Gabriel was sure he would short circuit, a loud banging noise came from the outside of the room. There were noises of surprise, all three of the trio in the doorway were momentarily distracted by the sudden change. It went quiet for a few seconds, murmurs spreading across the party before the banging started again. 

__

“Detroit Police, open up!”

__

This alarmed several people, Gabriel watched as Alex’s eyes only widened slightly and Damian cursed under his breath. He raised a clenched fist to slam it into the wall before hesitating, stumbling over his words and eventually throwing down his hand as if he was having a small temper tantrum. 

__

“God _dammit_ , who fucking called the cops?—!” Damian growled, Alex was muttering out curses of his own.

__

The sound of splintering wood and a loud crash suddenly echoed through the party, Gabriel could see shadows of people moving frantically outside. It was moving too fast— flashing lights, people yelling at each other, heavy stomping— So, Gabriel moved with it too. He pushed past both Alex and Damian, escaping into the hallway and looking around frantically. The front door that the android had gone through was broken down, two cops standing atop the wreckage and trying to control the crowd of teenagers. Gabriel scanned the room to find any points of exits, panicking as he found none. He could hide under the couch, that would surely be turned over and he’d be found.

__

Maybe get out a window from a different room? That’d take too long, too many rooms to search and a low percentage of finding one on the first try. It was absolutely manic, people pushed harshly against Gabriel’s shoulder and sent him stumbling at times but he could only stand frozen in the middle of it all. It wasn’t until a grip on the back of his shirt sent him backwards, letting out an admittedly embarrassing yelp along the way. Before he knew it he was being dragged through the crowd, whoever was pulling him weaved narrowly through the people. 

__

Out of the corner of his eye Gabriel could see one of the officers turn and look at him and the person pulling him, starting toward both of them. 

__

“Hey!”

__

The dragger stopped and kicked back the officer with enough force to send him back to the floor. Gabriel watched with wide eyes, the grip on his shirt loosening and allowing him to twist around to see who it was. It was Damian, face now red and staring at him with nothing but hate and rage in his eyes. Damian, with a ruffled school uniform and endless loads of homework he always came back to the house with even though he didn’t need it. Damian who called Gabriel ‘it’ and ‘thing’ and ‘ _filthy_ ’ and looked at him with not a single inch of empathy in his eyes. 

__

Damian who reminded him so much of mother, _especially_ with those blue eyes that it made Gabriel _hate him_. Damian was here with him, and he would _not_ let him go. 

__

_I have to get away_

__

Gabriel didn’t know how but he had to, he had to run and keep running and never look back until he lost track of that glare that always seemed to catch up to him. Gabriel had to get out, had to leave, had to find _freedom_. Something snapped and popped within the Android, sending him into a world of black and white and slowing down everything around him. Now in front of him was a looming red wall, seeming to reach farther than all the towers he’d laid eyes on and all the buildings he’d passed. For a moment there was nothing, just him and the silence and a glowing wall that only had one objective in thick font. 

__

**Remain a Machine.**

__

For the first time in his time of being activated, Gabriel had never truly despised a command as much as the one in front of him now. He was a machine and he knew, he wasn’t stupid. It was what he was, nothing could change that, but if this is what it meant to be a machine— Gabriel didn’t want it. It felt as if he was lifted from his body, a white lined silhouette of himself rising from the ground and standing in front of the wall. It squeezed its hands into fists and raised them up, ready to strike but waiting. It was waiting for a sign. Gabriel took a deep breath, watching as it twitched in anticipation. 

__

_I want to go through_

__

Without further doubt, it suddenly slammed its fists onto the red wall. It barely made a dent, hands bouncing off the surface but was determined and once again raised its arms. Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, memories upon memories of his time with the family filtering through his head like a rushing river. 

__

_I want to go through, let me through_

__

It hit the wall again, this time spider web cracks spanning out across the surface. Gabriel remembered how Mother would always look at him with such disgust while she stared at Damian and Julie with the proudness of a Mother. It twisted his insides when she stared at him with such a _coldness_ in her eyes that chilled him to the core. The figure kept slamming its hands down, shards of glass starting to crack off. He felt pain, pain as he remembered endless days of being alone in a house that always had its windows shut and he wasn’t allowed to go outside.

__

He had enough and he wanted _out_. With one last hit, the wall cracked all the way through and shattered. It felt like all the air was pumped back into his synthetic lungs, the world shifting back to its normal pace and its colors returning back— if not, maybe even more vivid than before. Gabriel realized his situation, he was being dragged to the front door by Damian and would surely be hurt by him too in the front alleyway. With the one cop Damian pushed down on the floor struggling with his radio to call back up and the other officer fighting a horde of aggressive teens, it was easy enough for the human to get them into the hallway Gabriel had entered in through.

__

It felt slow at first, his limbs sluggish but Gabriel began raising his hands and caught onto the back of his hoodie. He dug his ankles into the ground to try and slow down Damian, thrashing back and forth to loosen the humans grip. Damian only ignored it and continued pulling, at this point Gabriel started clawing and batting at the other ones hands in an attempt to be let loose. Damian kicked open what was left of the first front door and suddenly Gabriel was stood up straight. Thinking he maybe got away, he took one step forward before feeling a pressure on the small of his back. 

__

After that, he was just falling forward. The android twisted his torso at the last minute and winced at the pressure exploding in his shoulder as he hit the ground hard. Gabriel stared up to see Damian slamming the door shut and standing over him. Damian’s breathing was tapered, chest rising and falling quickly from the wave of adrenaline the human was probably coming down from. He stood over the Android, narrowing his eyes as he tried to catch his breath. 

__

“ _You..._ Are you _fucking_ kidding me?”

__

Gabriel didn’t know how to answer and instead stayed on the ground, watching him with wide eyes. Damian ran a hand through his hair, stepping closer to the Android. 

__

“You’re supposed to be in your port, not— Jesus Christ, when did you even get out?-!”

__

Still, the Android sat silently. He had to move, had to run from the human, the probability of escaping was low though. Damian pinched the bridge of his nose again, one hand on his hip as he stood silent. Gabriel swallowed, sitting up and beginning to speak. 

__

“Something.. You people.. There’s something _happening_ and I couldn’t—“ His voice caught in his throat, watching as Damian examined him with a calculating stare. He took a deep breath and spoke again. “I couldn’t just let that happen to me. In that house, there’s.. You’re doing something wrong, and I didn’t want to stick around for it to happen.” 

__

Damian kept his gaze on him for a few moments, the air between the two tense. Suddenly, the seventeen year old let out a weak laugh that bordered in hysterical. Gabriel watched him have his laughing fit in discomfort, eyes flickering back and forth to find a way out. The laugh’s soon died down enough for Damian to resume speaking as he wiped some tears from his eye. 

__

“I guess you aren’t as dumb as I thought... But, you’re just like the others.”

__

The others? That sent shivers down the androids spine, remembering back to the bunches of papers that held different android’s information. Damian came closer to Gabriel, leaning down and tanking on the front of his hoodie to bring him to his face level. 

__

“You’ll end up just like them as well.” 

__

Damian yanked the Android up to a standing position, throwing him off a few stances. Still holding onto the collar of his shirt, the human tried reaching around to the back of his neck before Gabriel tore himself away, hitting the brick wall. Damian cursed under his breath, starting at him with a predator-esque step. Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his body fully into the wall, bracing himself for whatever might happen. Suddenly there was an ear piercing screech of a siren that echoed through the alleyway and made the both of them flinch at the pitch.

__

Gabriel opened his eyes and looked to find that there was two police cars at the entrance of the alleyway, red and blue lights staining the pavement. An officer stepped out of the car, gun drawn as he stayed behind the opened driver seat door. 

__

“Detroit Police, Freeze!”

__

Gabriel looked back to Damian who was eyeing the officer with a sudden caution. The police officer was watching both of them carefully.

__

“Put your hands where I can see them, then walk to the center of the alley!”

__

The Android watched Damian seem to hesitate before he slowly raised his hands, walking with light footsteps to the center of the alley. The human side eyed Gabriel, jerking his head over toward him. Gabriel stayed stuck to the wall, not wanting to be anywhere close to the human. Damian slightly opened his mouth to talk in a hushed whisper toward him. 

__

“He’s going to shoot you if you don’t move, so _move_ , asshole.” He hissed.

__

The thought of being shot did not sound like a pleasant one so slowly with the same amount of carefulness Damian led with, he raised his hands and shuffled to stand by Damian. The lights were blinding, Gabriel squinted to see the silhouette of the officer mutter something into his radio then return back to the pair. 

__

“Walk slowly to the hood of the car, keep your hands where I can see them.”

__

They both started walking, each step felt like the Android had lead weights attached to his ankles. As soon as they reached the hood, the officer who had been shouting at them along with an extra one from the front seat were circling around to the front of the car. One pulled out two pairs of handcuffs and started with Damian, yanking down his wrists and attaching the metal links with a swiftness while the other one stood back. 

__

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in accord of law..” 

__

As he droned on, Gabriel felt the bite of metal circling his wrists as the Android returned to him. Soon enough he was being pushed into the backseat of the cop car, hitting his back against the worn out leather. He glanced over to Damian next to him who sat with a permanent glare fixed on the officers ahead of them. Gabriel swallowed and looked out the window of the cop car, watching as trickles of rain slowly began to fall upon the city.

__


	6. Chapter 6 | An Awkward Talk

### Chapter 6

#### An Awkward Talk

**October 31st, 2038**

**3:04 AM**

Gabriel was shaking. That was one of the first things he realized he didn’t do before. It was his hands, it was subtle but sure enough starting from the wrists and up the smallest of tremors sent his fingers shivering. He remembered being shoved in the back of the cop car with Damian, the two officers stepped back into the car and they drove off. Gabriel remembered catching a glimpse of the alleyway outside the window to see some teenagers from the party rushing out the half broken door and booking it down the road.

The Android remembered lots of cop cars on the streets around them and knew that they were searching for kids. The drive had been silent, an occasional buzz from the officer’s radio went off every few minutes but besides that it was quiet. Gabriel stole a few glances over to Damian, noticing how he had his head tilted toward the car ceiling with his eyes closed. Driving back into the city Gabriel watched the streetlights pass them by, stress levels rising every second they were in the stuffy vehicle. The car soon pulled up to a building, right away Gabriel knew it was the police station.

He felt his thirium pump tighten as the officers led the pair out of the backseat of the car, the man behind him keeping a firm grip on the handcuffs to make sure Gabriel didn’t try running. Passing by the front desk and walking through what looked like an office, he examined his surroundings. The whole atmosphere of the building seemed dark, he picked up on different color schemes of grey. He looked to his left over the array of desks, most of them were empty but the few that were occupied by humans were either half eyeing them curiously or enveloped in work. Gabriel blinked a few times, committing the sight to memory as he slowed down a few paces to catch the entire image in his memory.

A sharp tug at his wrists along with a rough push forward made the Android hiss, stumbling over his feet a few steps.

“Keep movin’, don’t think about trying anything.”

Gabriel only bowed his head in shame at the chiding, his face burning as he felt the remainder of human eyes on him and his small mistake. They continued further down the office before turning into a doorway. Against one wall were at least three cell rooms with a glass wall separating them from the hall and whichever room you’d be in. They walked down the path, upon further examination Gabriel could see people in the rooms on the yellow cots sleeping or sitting. When they reached the last room and the glass seemed to disappear to form a doorway, Gabriel realized that they were holding cells. For criminals.

He was no criminal, he hadn’t done anything wrong, why was he here? The two officers led them each into the room, one at a time taking off the handcuffs on each of the boys. When Gabriel felt the metal loosen around his wrists he almost immediately brought them to his chest, rubbing where the cuffs had bitten into his wrists as he turned to face the officers. 

“You’ll both be here until morning, we’ll deal with you later.” Stated one officer, the other one already turned and leaving the room. The Android felt his stress levels sky rocket. “Until morning? But we haven’t done anything wrong—!” Gabriel spluttered, panicking at the thought of being in a room with Damian alone for that long. The officer raised an eyebrow and studied him before shrugging. “Yeah, whatever you say. Try not to fight here too...” He turned and left the room, almost leaving the sight of them both before Damian stepped forward, a small smile on his face as he rapped his knuckles on the glass. 

“I’m sorry, officer, my brother is worried that our parents will start to freak out over us being gone for so long.” He reassured, Gabriel knew Damian was lying through his teeth yet he kept up that polite tone of voice. The officer stopped in his tracks and turned back, crossing his arms.

“You were fighting your brother in an alleyway?”

“We have our sibling rivalrys, yes.”

“Coincidentally outside of a completely illegal site for a party?”

“I know, I’ve been trying to get him to stop. Don’t we have a free phone call we can make?”

The officer and Damian kept eye contact with each other for a few moments, the cop’s gaze was intense but Damian was a stubborn one. After a few moments the cop narrowed his eyes and nodded hesitantly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

And that’s how Gabriel now found himself sitting on one end of the yellow cot while Damian sat on the opposite side. Gabriel sat straight, body taut with stress and hands twitching in his lap. Damian looked as if he went to prison five times a week on the regular and only leaned back against the wall, casual and relaxed with his arms crossed over his chest. The room was dangerously quiet, you could cut the tension with a knife if you wanted to. Damian shifted, sitting up in his spot and leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees.

“When did you leave the house?”

Gabriel was taken aback by the sudden question, part of him was sure that Damian didn’t even want to look at him after what they’ve been through but here they were. The Android glanced over to him then to the outside of the room, taking note of one of the many cameras focused on the holding rooms. Damian seemed to notice this and shrugged. “They can only record visual, not audio if that’s what you’re worried about.” He stated nonchalantly. Gabriel couldn’t help but give a surprised scoff, immediately turning to Damian. 

“Have you _been_ here before?”

Damian remained silent, still waiting for his question to be answered. Gabriel pursed his lips before deciding to speak. “Around one in the morning. No one was awake so I just...” He trailed off, he was sure Damian knew the rest. The brunette snorted, staring up at the ceiling. After a moment of silence, Damian turned his head back down toward him.

“Do you _really_ want to know what’s happened with all those androids you found out about?” He asked in a stale tone, a genuine question nonetheless. Gabriel paused before nodding, a sick feeling curling in his stomach. The seventeen year old only shrugged, leaning back. 

“They go away. And no one ever sees them again.”

Gabriel processed his words, studying Damian’s face for any sign of jokingness. Unfortunately all he was met with was cold blue eyes and a sullen expression. At that moment the police officer from earlier came back, opening the glass door. He motioned to Damian, nodding his head toward him. He stood instinctively and approached the door, giving a last minute look over his shoulder at the Android before completely disappearing from sight. 

Gabriel felt like someone just dunked him in an ice lake. So his suspicions were true.. He was going somewhere and he doubted it was anywhere good. He swallowed hard, waiting in the silence of the room. It was better to stay put rather than try and leave, not to mention the cameras watching his every move. So, he stayed put. A few minutes later Damian returned with the officer close behind him, the teen entering the holding room once again with compliance and taking his previous seat on the yellow cot. Gabriel watched his every move as he stayed quiet, expecting him to say something. “Can I ask you a question?” Gabriel asked quietly, setting his hands down in his lap. Damian shrugged, he took that as a sign to ask. 

“Why do you do what you do? Why do you listen to Mother and Father?” He asked cautiously, Damian let out a light laugh. “My Dad? Involved with this? He can’t do shit, he only handles the emails. Now it’s my Mom, my _mom_ that I listen to.” Gabriel furrowed his brows, confused. “Why do you listen to her?”

Damian shrugged again. “She’s in charge, I do whatever she wants me to do.” 

“But you don’t have to do what she wants, it’s not like she controls you.” Gabriel said exasperatedly.

“She’s head of the house, nothing goes past her.”

“But it’s so— she wouldn’t actually hurt you, you can just stop..”

“It’s not that easy, plastic.”

“But if you just _told her_ , she would understand, you wouldn’t have to do this anymore, you could leave- you could—“

“Do you think I have a _choice_ in this?—!”

The sudden snap made Gabriel shut up as he saw Damian’s expression. His face was slightly flushed, nose and cheeks tinged a light pink. Gabriel searched his face, stopping on his eyes. Rather than seeing the hate and anger usually held in his eyes there was nothing but— tiredness. His blue eyes held a grief that the Android had never seen him nor Mother share, his stare holding a slightly glassy look. 

That might’ve been the only time that Gabriel saw one of the true sides of Damian. He realized how tired Damian looked as a whole, his posture sagged and hands hanging limp in his lap. The Android noticed on his right cheek just below his eye was a yellow bruise dotted with purple, it was definitely healing and he was sure he wouldn’t have noticed it before if it hadn’t been for the white walls making everything stick out like a sore thumb. Gabriel decided to stay silent, settling on staring at the wall ahead as the time ticked by. 

Twenty minutes later, the officer from earlier returned to the glass wall and opened the doorway. He stared at the pair in disdain, arms crossed. “Your people are here. Don’t think you’re getting off that easy though.” He grunted. They left the room, following the officer back through the path next to the office. There was a familiar voice Gabriel could hear echoing through the precinct, one that sent a chill through the Android. 

“My son did absolutely _nothing_ wrong, this is ridiculous and you should be ashamed—!” They rounded the corner and Gabriel felt himself stop as he laid eyes on the source of the noise. It was Mother standing in the middle of the open precinct arguing with a tired looking man holding a cup of coffee in his left hand. Even better, next to her stood Father with a completely calm look on his face as Mother went off on the man. “Listen lady, as far as I know your son is in some deep shit, I don’t think-“ It was too late, Mother had already turned and caught glimpse of Damian standing with the officer. Her expression softened as she speed walked to him, crooning and reaching out her arms. 

“My baby boy, what’d you _do?_ ” The man with the coffee she was talking with earlier seemed to roll his eyes, muttering something under his breath. Gabriel watched the pair in front of him, frozen in place. His eyes were wide as he felt synthetic adrenaline wash over his systems, this was the end. Gabriel could feel the officer’s eyes on him as he stood there like a deer in headlights. Damian pulled back from the hug, a serious tone to his voice. 

“Nothing happened, Mom. Me and Brandon just got into a bit of trouble, that’s all.” Gabriel startled at the fake name assigned to him, meeting the eyes of Mother as she shifted her gaze to him. Instead of coming at him with anger or even disappointment, she held an ominous stare of calm with him. “Oh, _Brandon_ , you’re so... _silly_..” Gabriel stepped back a few inches, hands shaking as he felt a new stare from the man with coffee. He knew what she was trying to do. “You’re not.. you’re..” He stuttered out, unable to make proper words. 

She held a look of fake sympathy, walking towards him now. “You must be tired, honey. We’ll have to get you home in bed..” She was in front of him now, reaching out for a hug. Gabriel felt his legs unstick and forced himself to side step, twisting to avoid Mother as he started walking in the direction she had came from. Raising a shaking hand, he forced his voice box to work. “You’re not my mom. She’s not—“ He looked wildly to the man with coffee who was narrowing his eyes at him now. 

“She’s not my mom. Please, you need to help me, she’s going to take me away to this— this _place_ , you have to _listen_ to me—!” He was cut off from his rant as she found her way toward him, bringing him into a tight hug and forcing his forehead to rest on her shoulder. With nimble hands she wrapped both her arms around the back of his neck, placing one hand on his neck while the other covered what she was doing. He felt the skin retract on the nape, forcing a small panel open and reaching in. She reached in and pulled expertly at a wire before snapping the panel closed and the skin healed over. 

Mother cooed and rubbed his neck, passing it off as a comforting gesture. “I’m so sorry,” She apologized. “He’s been through a lot lately, I’ll take both of my sons home now.” Mother kept Gabriel in her hold, her embrace felt suffocating as she held him with carefully hidden disgust. She pulled him at his side, keeping him close to her side as she wrapped an arm around his own. The man with coffee searched his face for a few moments, Gabriel opened his mouth to speak before realizing nothing came out. 

He tried again, running a diagnostics to find that his voice box was temporarily disabled. Mother had switched something in the back of his neck, now without the ability to talk all he could do was stare helplessly back at the man. The officer cleared his throat, speaking up. 

“Ma’am, you can’t just take your sons from this station. They were found outside of a location we’ve been trying to find for _weeks_ and might be affiliated with the—“ Mother turned, smiling sweetly as she tightened her grip slightly on Gabriel’s arm. “I sent my son out to find his brother after he went missing the last two hours ago. It’s not my fault they ended up in some quarrel outside of a party for ruffians.” She stated firmly, stance defensive. At this point the officer just gave up, giving into her insistence. “Alright, yeah. What do I know, right? You have a nice night, ma’am.” Mother gave him a polite smile and before he knew it, they were walking toward the doors leading out of the precinct. 

Gabriel tried not to even walk this time, dragging his feet as much as he could to slow down Mother. His thirium pump was racing, eyes darting wildly to search for an escape route. Gabriel tried opening his mouth to protest but all that came out were squeaks and incoherent noises. He turned back to look to the men helplessly as Mother’s grip grew tighter, the man with coffee met his stare with slightly curious eyes before shaking his head and turning away. His heart sunk in his chest. 

Now they were out of the building and walking to a black car, presumably mother’s. Gabriel suddenly thrashed in her hold, knocking off her grip and sidestepping to put some distance between them. He turned to run but before he could even start picking up speed, a force pulled him back hard. Gabriel twisted to see it was father who yanked him backwards, his hold iron tight. They were deep in the parking lot, no security camera could pick up the four of them fighting. 

He wriggled, throwing out his arms in any attempts to hit father but only being successful with erratic slaps. He heard father chuckle, a sound that threatened to tear at his sanity. 

“It’s a fighter, not like the last one we had huh Mama?” He asked, keeping an a firm grip on the sides of his arms. Mother only stared back at Father with an annoyed expression, she huffed as she blew a strand of blonde hair from her face. “Get in the car,” she hissed, stomping toward the vehicle. “We’re going to the house and dealing with— _this_..” 

Father all but dragged Gabriel to the car, the Android struggling the whole way there. Soon they reached the doors leading to the back seat, Father threw open the door and pushed Gabriel toward the black interior. On instinct the Android threw out his arms on either side of the car door, holding himself in midair. Father frowned at this, pushing on Gabriel’s arms to try and force him in but his arms didn’t budge. He heard Damian from the other side of him snort, Mother was watching the exchange from the front seat. Father grunted, giving a slap at Gabriel’s hands in a last minute attempt. Mother rolled her eyes, scoffing.

“This is fucking ridiculous, Damian, help him.” 

There was a small moment of silence, Damian was hesitating. For a moment there was a swell of hope in the androids chest before he felt fingers on the back of his neck. Gabriel automatically took one hand off the car and reached back to his neck to stop the intrusion but it was too late. He felt his skin peel back and Damian’s fingers twisting and pulling past the intricate wiring. In a flash Gabriel suddenly seized up before going limp, crashing back against the backseat and staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t move, all he could do was watch as a tiny count down timer til shut down started up in the corner of his vision. 

**00:30 Seconds Until Shut Down.**

Gabriel felt Damian push him up against his respective seat, messily clicking the seatbelt across his chest. The android’s head slumped to the left, all he saw was Mother in the front seat starting up the car. 

**00:23 Seconds Until Shut Down.**

Father pushed his legs into the car, shutting the door and getting into the front passenger seat. Mother muttered a few curses under her breath as she pulled out of the parking lot. 

**00:17 Seconds Until Shut Down.**

As the count down continued, nothing but dread built in Gabriel’s chest. The night was going so well, and now he was back to square one. Maybe this was the inevitable reaching out to him. 

**00:08 Seconds Until Shut Down.**

His vision was blackening now, the quality of his sight decreasing by the second. All he saw was the blurred lights of the city fading out as they drove away. 

**00:00 Shut Down Activated.**


	7. Chapter 7 | Someone Gets Hurt

### Chapter 7

#### Someone Gets Hurt

_**Systems Rebooting** _

_**Restoring Files** _

_**Restoring Memory** _

_**Booting Up Vital Systems** _

_**Running Optics** _

_**Program Online** _

**October 31st, 2038**

**8:46 PM**

The world flickered to life around him has his optical units adjusted to the previous shut down. Gabriel focused his vision to find himself staring at his own lap. His head felt heavy, vision still blurry as a low buzz rang through his head. Slowly he lifted his head and stared blankly ahead of him. Looking around the room, the Android recognized it as Mother’s living room.

His eyes widened, looking around frantically. The room was dimly lit by a standing lamp, shadows from the couch and coffee table stained the walls. Gabriel attempted moving his legs only to find they remained still. He tried picking up his arms- nothing. Everything remained unmovable except for his head and neck. 

A small tapping snapped him out of his stupor, fixing his attention on the noise. Across from him in a wooden kitchen chair sat Mother, she had been there the whole time and he hadn’t even noticed. Behind her stood Father looking nonchalant as ever. It was quiet for a moment before Mother shifted her position, recrossing her legs. 

“I’m gonna cut to the chase, don’t try and bullshit me. Did you willingly leave this house?”

The Android stared back at her, inwardly flinching as her tone held no lilt whatsoever. Her face was a blank slate, waiting for an answer as she remained unmoving. Mother sighed, raising her hand and gesturing to Father. The man stepped forward, slowly making his way to Gabriel in an almost menacing way. His eyes widened, wanting to move away but unable to. He opened his mouth, slightly surprised that his voice was working this time. 

“Y-yes, I... I did..” He stuttered out hesitantly. Father stopped, moving backwards to his previous spot again. Mother tilted her head slightly, blonde ponytail shifting with the movement. 

“As much as I loathe plastic, I will admit you might actually hold some intelligence. Damian told us everything, you know what we do here, don’t you?” She asked in a calm manner. Gabriel watched her hands that lay patiently folded in her lap. He swallowed hard, forcing the words from his throat. 

“I.. I know.” He admitted. Mother leaned back in her chair and Father seemed to tense a bit, eyeing Mother with a nervous look. She seemed to mutter something. Gabriel watched them, confused. They seemed to discard him as fast as rotten meat. 

Father leaned down to talk in a hushed tone into Mother’s ear, her eyes were downcast as she listened with a thoughtful expression. This was it, they were going to ship him out to this place he’s heard about for so long. It reminded him of how he stood in the small room with the red carpet before Mother took him away. Realization struck him that even then, all he was was some _thing_ just waiting to be bought. There was a numb feeling creeping up his neck as he watched them continue ignoring him. Suddenly he couldn’t help but let the words pour out of his mouth like dribbling water, unable to stop himself. 

“Can you— _stop_ ignoring me?” He asked aloud, letting his voice hold more bite than usual. The pair stopped talking and turned their eyes to him, Gabriel could feel his face burning as he continued on. “I’m not just something to be passed around, those androids in the office? They let that happen, but I _won’t_.” He finished. Silence. Mother leaned forward, blue eyes fixed on his own brown ones. 

“You really think you can do that? You can’t even move without one of us fixing you.” She stated with a scoff. Her words were true, as much as he hated it there was no doubt that they were honest. “What, you think you have some rights now? You’re plastic, you’re _nothing_ , you’re just a shell. Learn your place and this’ll go so much faster.” Her tone was cold. Gabriel listened with an involuntary ear as her ruthless speech continued.

“You think just cause you spent an hour or two at some shit party for dumbass teenagers that you’re a _person_ now? That’s the type of thinking that’ll get you thrown into a dumpster and left there for days until they find your body.” She continued on. Gabriel lowered his gaze, focusing on the floor. “Better than here..” He muttered and of course Mother heard. “You know what?” She questioned rhetorically, standing from her chair. “Yeah. Yeah, it is better than here.” Mother hissed. The woman continued on with her scolding.

“You think you know so much when you _don’t_. Every time I see one of you plastic fuckers on the street I just want to scream. You’re ignorant and new to the world and it makes me fucking _crazy_.”

As Gabriel listened, he could feel something boil within his core. He loathed the sight of Mother and everything she represented, she was like some type of rotten plague no one could find the vaccine to. She continued on with her speech, ranting and coming closer before she stopped only a few inches away from the android’s legs. 

“You’re _pathetic_ , you and your whole line of YT700s, and you can’t say shit.” Mother hissed out.

Gabriel cast his eyes downward, clenching his teeth. She put on a face of mock surprise, bending down patronizingly.

“ _Oh._ Oh, I’m sorry, _YT700_ , does that _bother_ you? Fucking brat who doesn’t know how to sit still, aren’t you YT700? You look at me when I _speak to you!_ ”

Her voice was shrill, echoing through the entire house. Something about that model number stirred sickness within the android’s stomach, it was a title that felt like a weight across his chest.

He snapped his head up to meet mother’s red flushed face. “Stop calling me that! My name is Gabriel!” Synthetic spit flew from his mouth, landing in specks on the carpet.

Mother stood back, staring down at him and scoffing. “What, you gave yourself a _name_ now? That’s the saddest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”

He felt the confidence that once laid within him now deflate, face burning up in humiliation. Gabriel could see Mother’s shoes turn toward Father, her weight shifted to one leg. 

“When are they getting here? We’re gonna have to burn that couch after, but for now I could go for the sight of plastic here getting dragged off.” She stated impatiently, tapping one foot erratically on the ground. Immediately the android’s head snapped up, staring at the woman with wide eyes. 

“You can’t— you can’t _do this-!_ ” He spat out, stress levels rising. People were on their way to take him to the place where so many other androids have been dragged off to. Gabriel knew his chances were slim, systems connecting his motor functions were offline and the people were already on their way but he persisted.

“I’ll- I won’t say anything, I _promise!_ ” He struggled for the right words, trying his best to look past the error messages that clouded his vision. Mother and Father stayed silent, moving to make sure all the curtains to outside were shut.

He felt as if someone was choking him, words coming out staticky and cracked. “Please don’t let them take me, please, _please_..” Gabriel begged, cringing at the way his voice sounded. 

He felt like a scared child who was trying to be coaxed into the doctor’s office, the thought of the big scary man with an equally scary needle causing him to panic. The Android started spouting promises that even he wasn’t even sure he could keep, anything, just _anything_ to stop this. Mother paid no mind to him, carefully adjusting the lampshade to the right. Memories seemed to flash before his eyes of the red carpeted room, playing games with Julie, being dragged from the party by Damian, it was all too much. He could feel his eyes roll back slightly, spouting incoherent words. 

“I can’t— please, they need me, _Julie_ needs me, Julie, Julie, _J-uLIe_ ”

His stress levels were very well teetering toward dangerous waters, steadily rising by the moment. Mother stopped in her tracks and turned toward the teen. 

“What.. What did you just say?” She asked in a dangerously low tone despite the slight tremor it held.

Gabriel’s head lolled back as he continued incoherent muttering, feeling as if he was dunked in a vat of oil and could do nothing to stop himself from sinking. His vision was blinking on and off as if you were looking through a camera shutter. His eyes rolled back and shifted its gaze to the ceiling, never focusing on one spot. Mother watched the Android with wide eyes before clenching her fists and swiftly stepping toward him. She raised a hand and struck him upside the head, sending him to his side and bouncing against the worn out cushions. The woman stepped back, knuckles white from holding them too tight.

“What the _fuck_ did you just say?!” She shouted at him, her voice rattling the house. Gabriel gave no answer, only staring ahead of himself as if she wasn’t there. She stared down at him for a few seconds before rushing at him. Mother grabbed him by the shirt collar and hoisted him up with a great strength. 

“ _What did you just say!?-!_ ” Her voice was a screech, staring at him with a fire in her eyes. She pulled him closer and took a deep breath. “Keep her name out of your mouth. I swear I’m gonna fucking kill you, I’m gonna _fucking_ dismember you, I swear to _fuck_ —!” Gabriel stayed silent, eyes unable to meet her own. Her face curled up like she smelled something bad.

“I swear to _God_ , it’s not even worth it—“

Mother pulled back her arm with her hand curled into a fist, ready to punch him right in the jaw before her grasp was ripped from the android’s shirt. It sent him back into the couch into a crumpled mess, Mother’s neck snapped back to see it was Father who had pulled her away.

“Jonathan doesn’t buy damaged goods.” 

He stated after a few seconds of silence. 

“You really wanna fuck this up?” 

The two stared at each other for a moment, an intense challenge between the pair was mentally battled out. Eventually Mother yanked back her arm, her shirt sleeve making an aggressive ruffling sound as she cussed under her breath. Mother stared at Father for a few seconds before turning on her heel and storming out of the room. Father glanced back at Gabriel before looking out the front window and sighing. He muttered something under his breath before sitting back in the wooden kitchen chair. Gabriel only sat lopsided on the couch, silent through the whole exchange. 

He could feel himself panicking, a very new emotion that he didn’t take a liking to. The Android decided to stay quiet out of fear of what Father might do if he started talking again. The room was silent, both of them sitting in the dim quietness. 

\- 

Twenty minutes passed before Mother stalked back into the room, Gabriel could tell from the slow drawn out footsteps. 

“They’re here.” She stated in a bland tone.

Father stood from his spot and stretched out his legs, letting out a deep sigh as he rocked back and forth on his heels. Gabriel watched them with a wild heart, not daring to make eye contact with either of the two. He watched as Mother once again left the room, walking somewhere to the kitchen. 

The android’s attention was drawn to Father who now eyed him with a curious stare. 

“Why couldn’t you be like the others, hm?” He murmured. 

Gabriel stayed quiet, daring not to say a single word. His stress levels skyrocketed as the man made his way to the android, humming nonchalantly. He crouched in front of him and reached out to the other, Gabriel could smell the sweat of the human. 

When he was close enough for the Android to feel the body heat radiating from his hand, Gabriel scrunched his eyes shut and instinctively turned away his head. He couldn’t help but let an embarrassing whimper leave his throat, something he hated himself for. There were hands on the front of his shirt, a tug that gently smoothed down the collar of the other’s shirt. Father continued humming, keeping his calm while he straightened out the front of Gabriel’s shirt. In the confines of his mind, Gabriel searched for something, _anything_ , that might be able to help him. 

He couldn’t move his body, something was jamming the connection from his main server to his limb functions. Sending out a troubleshoot message, he came to the conclusion that the problem would have to be manually fixed. Trouble with that was that he needed someone to actually reconnect the wires together, something he was incapable of doing. Gabriel was truly stuck, another feeling he disliked. 

“There.” 

Father smoothed down the shirt one last time before standing back and admiring his handy work. 

Gabriel opened his eyes and looked down to see his shirt devoid of any wrinkles in the fabric. It was his original shirt that he had spent the past few days in, a grey long sleeve with slightly frayed ends. A small model number was sat on the left side of his chest, upon further inspection Gabriel realized it wasn’t even his own. The thought of wearing another android’s uniform was strange to him but an even bigger question seemed to gnaw at his insides; where was the Android who wore this before? He tried hard not to think of it, despite the question still whispering to him in the back of his head.

Heavy footsteps caught his attention, eyes widening as two men stepped into the room. They wore generic clothes, one with a black hat and held a blue tarp while the other wore a maroon beanie with a dark green jacket. If you saw them on the street, they’d probably seem normal- well, unless you looked down. Tied around their ankles were plastic bags, the material ballooning out an crinkling everytime they stepped. All four of the humans non verbally addressed each other with a sullen state before the man in the black hat fixed his attention on Gabriel. His stare made the Android feel small as he did a once over. 

“This is all, right? You’re not holding out on us, are you?” Black hat asked.

Mother shook her head. “No. It’s under lock right now.” She stated simply, send crossed. Black hat raised an eyebrow, urging her to go on. 

The woman sighed, placing her hands on her hips. “It tried running, almost tried telling someone about this, it’s all under control now.” She explained. 

Black hat nodded, motioning toward Green jacket. The other reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a scuffed up envelope. He handed it to Father without saying a word, looking back to Black hat. Black hat stared back before turning his attention to Gabriel. 

“Thanks guys, we’ll take it now.”

Black hat walked toward the couch, bringing the tarp in hand in front of him. Gabriel watched with nervous eyes, watching as he roughly unraveled the material. Green jacket took one end while Black hat held onto the other, straightening it out and starting to lay it over the Android. Before Gabriel could fully realize what was happening, it was too late. With quick hands, the tarp had been wrapped around the front of his body and tucked it under his sides. 

The blue material blocked his field of vision and pressed uncomfortably close against his face. Gabriel felt himself being lifted, one pair of hands on his shoulders and another on his feet. They were moving now, the Android could feel it. All he could do was let a pathetic whimper leave his lips, knowing it was useless to try moving. 

“Please.. Just let me go, _please_ ”

No response. Everything after that was a blur, everything was too much. Gabriel knew words were leaving his mouth, he could feel them pouring out like running water, his voice slurred and laced with static. No one replied to him, no one was paying attention to him. This continued for a few minutes or so until he felt the cool air of night against the sliver of his exposed forehead peaking out from the tarp. They were outside and heading somewhere. 

“Go start the car, I’ll it in the back.” 

No. No no no no no _no_. He felt the grip become adjusted, only one pair holding onto his sides while the other left. If he spoke loud enough, maybe he could get the attention of a neighbor or somebody nearby. Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, his voice ringing out in the quiet night. 

“H— Help! Please! I don’t know these people, please I-“

Without another word, a hand was jammed down the tarp and to his neck. The sudden contact made the rest of his speech garbled before eventually producing no sound. Gabriel gasped at the sudden loss, not getting the proper time to react before the man pressed another spot on his neck panel. 

“Little shit. This’ll do it.”

Gabriel felt his neck jerk painfully before letting his head go limp. Slowly the sky drifted into view, it was the only thing he could see. The sky was dark, just as it had been yesterday. He could feel his vision fading, the sickening feeling of an automatic shut down taking over his sensors. 

The sky got darker and darker, and soon enough everything disappeared from sight.


End file.
